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AECTIC ADYENTUEE 

BY SEA AND LAND. 




rO^ ^"^S 




ELTSHA KENT KANE. 

The American Arctic Discoverer. 



ARCTIC ADVENTURE 



BY SEA AND LAND 



ti|e Earliest §att to t|e fast i;rp!&i&ns 



IN SEARCH or 



SIR JOHN PRANKLIN. 



EDITED BY 

EPES SARGENT. 



•WTTH Is^-^I=S .A.Kr3D ILIJXJSTI?,uA.TIOISrS. 



^y J 



VI 




BOSTON: 

PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & COMPANY, 

LONDON : SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO. 

M DCCC Lyii, 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty- 
Seven, by EpES Sargent, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United 
States for the District of Massachusetts. 



O 

r^/^ 
^C^ 



stereotyped bj 
HOBART & ROBJilNS, 

NIW KNGLAND TYPE AND STEEEOTTPE rOCNBERT, 
BOSTON. 



PREFACE 



The interest in the history of Arctic adventure 
created by the various expeditions in search of Sir 
John FrankHn, has been wonderfully increased, of 
late, by the deeply interesting narrative of Dr. Kane. 
Presented to the public in two elegant volumes, and 
embellished with some three hundred engravings 
and wood-cuts, conveying new and striking illustra- 
tions of the characteristics of Arctic scenery, this 
work is at once an honor to the American press and 
to the much-lamented author, who exhibited the 
rare union of those Caesar-like gifts which make 
both the successful man of action and the skilful 
historian. To Messrs. Childs & Peterson, of Phila- 
delphia, the liberal publishers, we are indebted for 
the wood-cuts which illustrate that chapter in the 
present work devoted to Kane's expedition. 

No one, we believe, can lay down Dr. Kane's 
book, after perusal, without a strong desire to know 
something more of Arctic adventure — something 
of the preliminary parts of a history, of which his 
volumes form the fascinating sequel. It has cer- 
tainly been our fortune to hear this desire expressed 
by many, and we have prepared the present work 
to meet an actual demand. To the narratives of 
Ross, Parry, Franklin, Beechey, Back, and other 
explorers — to Sir John Barrow's abstract of Arctic 



YI 



PREFACE. 



voyages — to the different publications on Arctic 
subjects of the Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, and 
of Nelson & Sons, of London — to the British quar- 
terly reviews, magazines, and journals — we have 
been largely indebted ; in many instances adopting, 
without alteration, the language in which events 
are narrated. Still, with all our obligations, no 
small amount of original labor and research has been 
found necessary, in order to render our narrative 
clear and complete. 

It would be unjust if we did not mention, in this 
connection, our indebtedness to Lieutenant Sherard 
Osborn, the latest Arctic historian, who, in his 
account of M'Clure's expedition, and of the discovery 
of a north-west passage, has given us the record of 
achievements the magnitude of which has been 
hardly appreciated as yet. The world looked for 
the denouement of a personal tragedy ; and turns, 
with comparative indifference, from the solution of 
the great geographical problem of the last three 
centuries. 




TABLE OE CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAG2 

THE ARCTIC OCEAN. — THE NORTHMEN. THE CABOTS. — THE CORTE- 

BEALS. SIR HUGH WELLOTTaHBY. — FROBISHER. SIR HUMPHREY 

GIIiBEBT. — DAVIS. BARENTZ. HUDSON. BAFFIN, 11 

CHAPTER II. 

RUSSIAN EXPLORATIONS. — DESHNEFF. LAPTEFF. — BEHRING. 

SCHAIiAROFF. YON WRANGELL, 44 

CHAPTER III. 

HEABNE- PHIPPS. — COOK. — MACKENZIE. — SIB JOHN BOSS'S FIRST 

VOYAGE. — BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN, 60 

CHAPTER IV. 

parry's FIRST VOYAGE, 81 

CHAPTER V. 
franklin's first land expedition, 97 

CHAPTER VI. 

parry's second voyage. parry's THIRD VOYAGE, ....... 109 

CHAPTER VII. 

LYON'S VOYAGE. — BEECHEy's VOYAGE. FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND 

EXPEDITION, 127 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SCORESBY. CLAVERING. PARRy's POLAR VOYAGE, 140 

CHAPTER IX. 

SIB JOHN boss's SECOND VOYAGE, 160 



VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTERX. PAGB 

back's land expedition. — back's voyage in the terror. — 
deasb and simpson, 181 

CHAPTER XI. 

EAe'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. — SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE, 211 

CHAPTER XII. 

EXPEDITIONS SENT IN SEARCH OP FRANKLIN. KELLETT AND MOORE. 

— RICHARDSON AND RAE. — SIR J. C. ROSS, 223 

CHAPTER XIII. 

OPINIONS AS TO THE FATE OF FRANKLIN. EXPEDITIONS SENT OUT IN 

1850. MEETING IN THE ARCTIC SEAS. THE PRINCE ALBERT'S 

VOYAGE. — TRACES OF FRANKLIN. — AUSTIN'S SQUADRON, .... 250 

^ CHAPTER XIV. 

FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE EXPEDITIONS. SIR JOHN ROSS. 

PENNY. GRINNELL EXPEDITION, 285 

CHAPTER XV. 
Kennedy's voyage in the prince albert. — rae's journey in 
1851, 314 

CHAPTER XVI. 

departure op belcher's expedition. — inglefield's voyage. — 
three more expeditions fitted out. — m'clure's voyage. — 
discovery op the north-west passage, 340 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE resolute AND INTREPID. m'cLURE's ADVENTURES CONTINUED. 

VOYAGE OF THE PHOENIX, 386 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

belcher's squadron. vessels abandoned. THE PHCENIX AND 

TALBOT. COLLINSON. RAe's DISCOVERIES. ANDERSON's JOUR- 
NEY, 403 

CHAPTER XIX. 

DR. KANE's EXPEDITION, 424 

CHAPTER XX. 

HARTSTEIN's voyage. — THE RESOLUTE FOUND BY AN AMERICAW 

WHALER. — HER RESTORATION, • 461 



TECHNICAL TERMS 

PECULIAR TO THE NAVIGATION AMONG ICE. 



Bat-ice. — Ice newly formed upon the surface of the sea. The expres- 
sion is, however, applied also to ice a foot or two in thickness. 

Beset. — The situation of a ship when closely surrounded by ice. 

Bight. — An indentation in a floe of ice, like a bay, by which name 
it is sometimes called. 

Blink. — A peculiar brightness in the atmosphere, often assuming an 
arch-like form, which is generally perceptible over ice or land cov- 
ered with snow. The blink of land, as well as that over large quan- 
tities of ice, is usually of a yellowish cast. 

Bore. — The operation of "boring" through loose ice consists in 
entering it under a press of sail, and forcing the ship through by 
separating the masses. 

Brash. — Ice broken up into small fragments. 

Cache. — Literally a hiding-place. The places of deposit of provision 
in Arctic travel are so called. 

Calf. — A mass of ice lying under a floe near its margin, and, when 
disengaged from that position, rising with violence to the surface of 
the water. — See Tongue. 

Crow's Nest. — A small circular house, like a cask, fixed at the mast- 
head, in which the look-out man sits, either to guide the ship through 
the ice, or to give notice of whales. 

Dock. — In a floe may be natural or artificial : the former being simply 
a small "bight," in which a ship is placed to secure her from the 
danger of external pressure ; and the latter, a square space cut out 
with saws for a similar purpose. 

Field. — A sheet of ice generally of great thickness, and of too great 
extent to be seen over from a ship's masthead. 

Fiord. — An abrupt opening in the coast-line admitting the sea. 

Floe. — The same as a field, except that its extent can be distinguished 
from a ship's masthead. A " bay-floe " is a floe of ice newly formed. 

Floe-piece. — An expression generally applied to small pieces of floes, 
not more than a furlong square. 

Glacier. — A mass of ice derived from the atmosphere, sometimes 
abutting on the sea. 

Hummock. — A mass of ice rising to a considerable height above the 



X TECHNICAL TERMS. 

general level of a floe, and forming a part of it. Hummocks are 
originally raised by the pressure of floes against each other. 

Ice-anchor. — A hook or grapnel adapted to take hold upon ice. 

Ice-belt. — A continued margin of ice, -which, in high northern lati- 
tudes, adheres to the coast above the ordinary level of the sea. 

Iceberg. — A large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier. 

Ice-foot. — The Danish name of the limited ice-belt of the more 
southern coast. 

Land-ice. — Ice attached to the land, either in floes or in heavy 
grounded masses lying near the shore. 

Lane of Water. — A narrovr channel among the masses of ice, through 
which a boat or ship may pass. 

Lead. — A channel through the ice. A ship is said to " take the right 
lead " when she follows a channel conducting her into a more navi- 
gable sea, and vice versa. 

Nipped. — The situation of a ship when forcibly pressed by ice on 
both sides. 

Pack. — A large body of ice, consisting of separate masses, lying close 
together, and whose extent cannot be seen. 

Pancake-ice. — Newly-formed ice, assuming the peculiar conformation 
of numberless patches of " sludge," and giving the surface of the 
sea the appearance of a handsome pavement. 

Patch of Ice. — The same as a pack, but of small dimensions. 

Pemmican. — Meat cured, pulverized, and mixed with fat, containing 
much nutriment in a small compass. 

Sailing-ice. — Ice of which the masses are so much separated as to 
allow a ship to sail among them. 

Sludge. — Ice of the consistence of thick honey, ofiering little impedi- 
ment to a ship whil^ in this state, but greatly favoring the formation 
of a "bay-floe." 

Stream. — A long and narrow, but generally continuous, collection of 
loose ice. 

Tongue. — A mass of ice projecting under water from an iceberg or 
floe, and generally distinguishable at a considerable depth of smooth 
water. It differs from a " calf" in being fixed to, or a part of, the 
larger body. 

Tracking. — Towing along a margin of ice. 

Water-sky. — A dark appearance in the sky, indicating " clear water " 
in that direction, and forming a striking contrast with the " blink " 
over land or ice. 

Young-ice. — Nearly the same as •' bay-ice," but generally applied to 
ice more recently formed than the latter. 



AECTIC ADVENTURE. 



CHAPTER I. 

ASPECTS OF THE ARCTIC REGIOIfS. — PHENOMENA. — THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 

EARLIEST EXPLORERS. THE NORTHMEN. THE CABOTS. — THE CORTE- 

REALS. SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY. FROBISHER. SIR HUMPHREY GIL- 
BERT. — DAVIS. — BARENTZ. HUDSON. BAFFIN. 

The varied physical aspect of the globe offers as 
much to charm or awe the eye of man as to minister 
to his comfort and well-being. From the glowing heat 
and gorgeous vegetation of the torrid zone, we move 
through all gradations of climate and feature, to the 
frigid regions of either pole, where perpetual ice and a 
depressed temperature present an extraordinary con- 
trast to the lands of the sun : from intensest heat we 
pass to intensest cold ; from the sandy deserts of the 
south to the icy deserts of the north. Yet there is as 
much in the frozen zone to impress and elevate the mind 
of the beholder as in the countries where nature dis- 
plays herself in rich and exuberant loveliness. 

Beyond the seventieth degree of latitude not a tree 
meets the eye, wearied with the white waste of snow ; 
forests, woods, even shrubs, have disappeared, and given 
place to a few lichens and creeping wood}^ plants, which 
scantily clothe the indurated soil. Still, in the furthest 
north, nature claims her birthright of beauty ; and in 
the brief and rapid summer she brings forth numerous 



12 ARCTIC PHENOMENA. 

flowers and grasses to bloom for a few days, until again 
blasted by the swiftly-recurring winter. 

In these regions certain mysterious phenomena exhibit 
their most powerful effects. Here is the point of attrac- 
tion of the compass needle ; and here the dipping nee- 
dle, which lies horizontal at the equator, points straight 
downwards. Slowly, in its cycle of nearly two thou- 
sand years, this centre or pole of magnetic attraction 
revolves in obedience to laws as yet unknown. Two 
degrees further toward the north is situated the pole 
of cold — a mystery like the former to science, but 
equally inciting to curiosity. If induction may be 
trusted, the pole of the earth is less cold than the lati- 
tudes fifteen degrees below it. 

Round the shores and seas of the arctic regions ice 
ever accumulates : a circle of two thousand miles' diam- 
eter is occupied by frozen fields and floes of vast extent, 
or piled high with hugest forms, awful yet fantastic as 
a dreamer's fancy. Mountain masses — 

" Whose blocks of sapphire seem to mortal eye 
Hewn from cerulean quarries in the sky, 
With glacier battlements that crowd the spheres, 
The slow creation of six thousand years. 
Amidst immensity they tower sublime. 
Winter's eternal palace, built by Time." 

Here the months are divided into long periods of day- 
light and darkness : for many weeks the sun sinks not 
below the horizon ; for three dreary months he appears 
not above it — 

" And morning comes, but comes not clad in light ; 
Uprisen day is but a paler night." 

But, in the absence of the great luminary, the vivid 
coruscations of the aurora borealis illuminate the wintry 
landscape, streaming across the skies in broad sheets of 



THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 13 

light, flashing in multi-colored rays, or quivering in 
faint and feathery scintillations — a light that takes 
away the irksomeness of gloom, and makes the long 
night wondrous. 

The desolate grandeur of the scene is in many parts 
increased by the entire absence of animated nature ; in 
others the dearth of vegetation is compensated by 
superabundance of animal life. Wrangell tells us that 
" countless herds of reindeer, elks, black bears, foxes, 
sables, and gray squirrels, fill the upland forests ; stone 
foxes and wolves roam over the low grounds. Enor- 
mous flights of swans, geese, and ducks, arrive in 
spring, and seek deserts where they may moult and build 
their nests in safety. Eagles, owls, and gulls, pursue 
their prey along the sea-coast ; ptarmigan run in troops 
among the bushes ; little snipes are busy along the 
brooks and in the morasses ; the social crows seek the 
neighborhood of men's habitations ; and when the sun 
shines in spring, one may even sometimes hear the 
cheerful note of the finch, and in autumn that of the 
thrush." 

''There is,'^ as observed by Lieutenant-Colonel Sa- 
bine, "a striking resemblance in the configuration of 
the northern coasts of the continents of Asia and Amer- 
ica for several hundred miles on either side of Behring's 
Strait ; the general direction of the coast is the same in 
both continents, the latitude is nearly the same, and 
each has its attendant group of islands to the north : 
the Asiatic continent, those usually known as the New 
Siberian Islands ; and the American, those called by 
Sir Edward Parry the North Georgian Group, and since 
fitly named, from their discoverer, the Parry Islands. 
The resemblance includes the islands also, both in gen- 
eral character and latitude." 

With respect to the Arctic Ocean, a late writer ex- 
2 



14 THE NORTHxMEN. 

plains : " We may view this great polar sea as enclosed 
within a circle whose diameter is 40°, or two thousand 
four hundred geographical miles, and circumference 
seven thousand two hundred miles. On the Asiatic 
side of this sea are Nova Zembla and the New Siberian 
Islands, each extending to about the IQth. degree of 
latitude. On the European and American sides are 
Spitzbergen, extending to about 80°, and a part of Old 
Greenland, whose northern extremity is yet unknown. 
Facing America is the large island washed by Regent's 
Inlet, Parry's or Melville's Islands, with some others, in 
latitude "70° to 76°, and beyond these nothing is known 
of any other land or islands ; and if we may form an 
opinion, by inspecting the general chart of the earth, it 
would be that no islands exist which could in any shape 
obstruct navigation." It is to these regions, and the 
labors of which they have been the scenC; that we have 
for a short period to direct our attention. 

The history of Arctic explorations properly begins at 
a period earlier by several centuries than is generally 
believed. Careful researches promoted and carried on 
of late years by the Society of Northern Antiquaries 
of Copenhagen, and others interested in the subject, 
have established the fact, that Newfoundland, Green- 
land, and several parts of the American coast, were 
visited by the Scandinavians — the Northmen and Sea- 
Kings of old — in the ninth and tenth centuries. While 
Alfred was engaged in expelling the Danes from Eng- 
land, and bestowing the rudiments of civilization on his 
country, and Charles the Bald was defending his king- 
dom against a host of competitors, the daring sea-rovers 
were forming settlements in Iceland. 

One hundred and twenty -five years later, a. d. 1000, 
Leif Erickson, as many antiquarians believe, led the 
way to the westward, and landed on the shores of Mas- 



THE NORTHMEN. 15 

sachusetts, naming the country Vinland, from the wild 
vines which grew in the woods. These adventurers 
made their way also to a high northern latitude, and set 
up stones, carved with Runic inscriptions, with the date 
1135, on Women's Islands — in latitude 12° 55' — Baf- 
fin's Bay, where they were discovered in 1824. The 
colonists on the eastern coast of this great bay made 
regular trips to Lancaster Sound and part of Barrow's 
Strait, in pursuit offish '^more than six centuries before 
the adventurous voyage of Parry," and carried on a 
trade with the settlers in Markland, as Nova Scotia was 
then called. Their numbers must have been considera- 
ble, for in Greenland there were three hundred home- 
steads or villages, and twenty churches and convents. 
They kept up intercourse with Europe until 1406, when 
it was interrupted by extraordinary accumulations of 
ice upon their coasts ; and though the Danish govern- 
ment has made repeated attempts to ascertain their fate, 
it still remains in doubt ; the supposition is, that all 
have perished from privation or violence of the natives. 
Spitzbergen, too, contained numerous colonists : graves 
are frequently met with on its shores ; in one place Cap- 
tain Buchan saw several thousands, the corpses of some 
of them as fresh as when first interred, preserved by 
the rigor of the climate. 

These early explorers were unable to take full advan- 
tage of their American discoveries ; this was reserved 
for a later period. '' Intervening," observes Humboldt, 
"between two different stages of cultivation, the 
fifteenth century forms a transition epoch, belonging at 
once to the middle ages and to the commencement of 
modern times. It is the epoch of the greatest discov- 
eries in geographical space, comprising almost all de- 
grees of latitude, and almost every gradation of elevation 
of the earth's surface. To the inhabitants of Europe it 



16 THE CABOTS.— THE CORTEREALS. 

doubled the works of creation, while at the same time 
it offered to the intellect new and powerful incitements 
to the improvement of the natural sciences in their 
physical and mathematical departments. '^ 

As we approach the period here referred to, we find a 
new spirit at work ; no longer the boisterous adventurous- 
ness of the Northmen, but an earnest spirit of enterprise. 
In 1380, the Zeni, two Venetian navigators, voyaged into 
the north, ignorant of the fact that the Scandinavians 
had preceded themrby three centuries, and brought home 
accounts of the countries they had seen. In 149 1, dur- 
ing the reign of Henry YII., British enterprise was first 
directed to a region in which it has been subsequently 
developed to a degree without example ; and Cabot, or 
Cabota, the younger, landed at Labrador eighteen months 
before Columbus saw the mainland of tropical America. 
He contemplated also a voyage to the pole, and sailed 
up to 611° of north latitude. It was thought scarcely 
possible that the newly-discovered continent stretched 
so far from north to south without a single opening to the 
westward, and the search for this became the prime 
object with mercantile adventurers, who hoped to find a 
way to the rich and gorgeous countries lying beyond. 

In the year 1500, Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, 
animated with the desire to emulate Columbus in mak- 
ing discoveries in the western world, set sail for that 
part of the globe, and reached the latitude of 50° north, 
whence he appears to have run as far as 60°. The 
account given of his voyage is very vague. After en- 
trapping on board no less that fifty-seven of the natives 
of the western continent, there can be very little doubt 
for the purpose of making them slaves, he returned to 
Portugal, carrying them away with him. He arrived at 
Lisbon on the 8th of October, 1501. He sailed again 
the next season with two vessels, when, in entering a 



THE CORTEREALS. 17 

strait, supposed to be that known since as Hudson's, 
the ships were separated by a storm. One of them 
returned home in safety, but, as if it were a retribution 
for his kidnapping the unfortunate aborigines of the 
country on his previous voyage, neither Gaspar Corte- 
real nor his crew returned again, nor could the slightest 
trace of their fate ever be discovered. Gaspar Corte- 
real had a brother named Miguel, who was much at- 
tached to him, and full of the same siDirit of enterprise ; 
— he determined to set out in search of Gaspar. 

In the early part of the spring of 1502, Miguel sailed 
from Lisbon with three vessels. On reaching the nu- 
merous straits and islets about Hudson^s Bay, the ships 
separated with the intention of exploring each of them 
a particular inlet. This was an impolitic measure, as 
their union would have enabled them to give each other 
aid in case of distress, or to bring off the crew, should 
either of them chance to be shipwrecked on any of the 
numerous islands, either rock or ice, which abound in 
that dangerous navigation. The result was an unfortu- 
nate one. Two of the ships met at the point of rendez- 
vous, and returned home in safety. The third, with 
Miguel Cortereal on board, shared the melancholy fate 
of the navigators of whom it had gone from Portugal 
expressly to get tidings, — it never returned. The 
place where it perished, whether by storm, rock, ice, or 
famine, was never known. The two vessels which were 
so fortunate as to reach Lisbon reported the disaster, 
in addition to that which had been previously known. 
There yet remained a third brother, Vasco, who endeav- 
ored to obtain leave of the king to set out and try to dis- 
cover his two absent brothers. The king refused him 
permission, upon the ground that the loss of two out of 
such an adventurous family was much greater than he 
could afford to sustain, in servants so enthusiastic and 
2* 



18 SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY — FROBISHER. 

noble-minded. Thus died the brothers Cortereal ; and 
this is all that is known of their fate to the present hour. 
Sir Hugh Willoughby was sent out by the Muscovy 
Company with two ships to find a north-east passage 
" to Kathay and India ; " and pushed his way as far as 
Nova Zembla, from whence, being stopped by ice, he 
returned to a lower latitude, and in September, 1553, put 
in at the mouth of the river Arzina, in Lapland. A mel- 
ancholy interest attended this event, little anticipated 
by the unfortunate leader when he wrote in his journal 

— " Thus remaining in this haven the space of a weeke, 
seeing the yeare farre spent, and also very evill wether 

— as frost, snowe, and haile, as though it had beene the 
deepe of winter, wee thought it best to winter there." 
The dreary season passed away, and in the following 
year some Russian fishermen found Sir Hugh and his 
crew all frozen to death. The other vessel, commanded 
by Richard Chancelor, reached Archangel, and opened 
the way for commercial intercourse with Russia. 

Next in importance are the three voyages by Fro- 
bisher, in 15'76-'78. He discovered the entrance to Hud- 
son's Strait, and explored that still known as Fro- 
bisher's, but failed in penetrating to the westward. 
Great hopes were excited by some lumps of yellow glis- 
tening ore which he brought home, and in his later 
voyages gold-mines were not less to be searched for 
than the north-west passage. The study of natural 
phenomena was not, however, altogether lost sight of, 
as appears by a passage from the instructions issued 
under the authority of Elizabeth for the gallant seaman's 
guidance. " Yf yt be possible," so runs the official 
document, "you shall leave some persons to winter in 
the straight, giving them instructions how they may 
observe the nature of the ayre and state of the coun- 
trie, and what tyme of the yeare the straight is most free 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 19 

from yce ; with who you shall leave a sufficient prepara- 
tion of victualls and weapons, and also a pynnas, with 
a carpenter, and thyngs necessarie, so well as may be." 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert's expedition to colonize New- 
foundland soon followed. This naval commander was 
distinguished for his intellectual acquirements, his 
courage, and bold actions. He was nearly related to 
Sir Walter Raleigh. In IS'TS, he obtained full power 
from Queen Elizabeth to undertake a voyage of discov- 
ery on the continent of America, and to settle such 
parts as no Christian prince or his subjects could claim 
from previous possession. A discourse, written by him, 
and creditable to his talents, upon the practicability of 
a north-west passage, is extant in Hakluyt. 

In 1583, Sir Humphrey left England, on his second 
voyage, with five ships, sailing out of Plymouth Sound 
on the 11th of June. On the 30th, four vessels 
were in sight of Newfoundland ; one of the ships, com- 
manded by Captain Butler, and the property of Sir 
Walter, then Mr. Raleigh, having returned home on 
account of a contagious disorder breaking out on board. 
On the 3d of August they landed in Newfoundland, 
and took possession of the harbor of St. John's, in the 
name of the Queen of England. A discovery was made 
at the same time of a supposed silver-mine, by a Saxon 
miner, brought out on purpose in the squadron. The 
vessels remaining with Sir Humphrey at this time were 
the Delight, Golden Hinde, Swallow, and Squirrel. The 
largest vessel was but one hundred and twenty tons, 
while the smallest was only ten. The Swallow was 
sent home with the sick. Sir Humphrey then embarked 
in the Squirrel, of ten tons. 

Sir Humphrey left the harbor of St. John's on 
the 20th of August. On the 2'7th, be was in lati- 
tude 44°, with fair weather. On the 29th, a storm 



20 SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 

arose, and the Delight, the largest vessel of the 
squadron, was lost. Sixteen only made their escape in 
the boat. The first appearance of change was a dense 
fog, which enveloped the ships, followed by a gale of 
wind, south by east. They could not see beyond the 
head of the vessel. The Golden Hinde, all of a sudden, 
got entangled among rocks and shoals. The Delight 
beat still further in among them. Finding the sound- 
ings constantly varied, a signal was made to the Delight, 
by the Golden Hiude, to stand out, but it remained 
unnoticed. She soon afterwards struck on a shoal, and 
her stern was quickly beat to pieces. This was a fatal 
blow to the prospects of Sir Humphrey. 

The Golden Hinde and Squirrel, all now left of the 
five ships which originally set sail from Plymouth, stood 
east by south. The water shoaled, and then deepened 
from four to seven fathoms, and then shoaled to four or 
five again, with a very high sea. At the time the De- 
light went on the rocks, her boat was afloat at the 
stern, it having fortunately been hoisted out the day 
before, when the weather was fine, to pick up some 
birds which had been shot. Into this boat a part of the 
crew were, by great exertion, enabled to get, and to 
pick up others. The captain and a hundred of the crew 
perished with the ship ; and besides the Saxon before 
mentioned, who said he had discovered the silver ore, a 
learned man from Buda, in Hungary, called Budaeus on 
board, but whose name was Stephen Parmenius, who 
had written a Latin poem in praise of Sir Humjohrey, 
and had gone out to write an account of the voyage, 
and what he saw, in the Latin tongue, was among the 
sufferers. 

The bearing of Captain Browne, who had been trans- 
ferred from the Swallow into the Delight, was, upon this 
occasion, of the most heroic character. When the fate 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 21 

of the vessel was seen to be inevitable, he was advised 
to save himself by the boat, or, at least, to make the 
attempt. He spurned the counsel, refusing to set the 
example of deserting the ship and abandoning the larger 
portion of the crew, who could have no hope of escape. 
He continued to the last to exhort those on board not 
to give way to despair ; and firmly upon the deck of 
his vessel he awaited, with magnanimous resignation, 
the termination of the catastrophe. He could not endure 
the apprehension of a reproach for leaving his ship, 
even when hope was extinguished. The master, named 
Richard Clarke, was one of those preserved in the boat. 

During two days, in this destitute situation, and 
without provisions of any kind, they drifted before the 
tempest. It was feared the boat could not live much 
longer in such a sea unless lightened, and one of the 
party, by name Headley, proposed that lots should be 
drawn, and those who drew the four shortest of the 
number should be thrown overboard. Thus a better 
chance would be afforded to the survivors of keeping 
afloat and reaching land. The master nobly answered, 
*'No, we will all live or die in company ! ^^ The con- 
duct both of the captain and master of this vessel 
exhibited that striking heroism to which bravery in the 
field of battle is but secondary. 

The third and fourth day passed over the heads of 
these unfortunate men without sustenance. They picked 
up the weed borne on the surface of the foaming waves 
around them, and eagerly devoured it, drinking the 
sea-water. Their strength was rapidly leaviag them, 
and death, in its most fearful form, was before them. 
The man called Headley, and another, died on the fifth 
day. All wished it would please God to take them out 
of their misery. Since they had left the ship, the sun 
had been but once visible. All the nights but one had 



22 SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 

been starless, so that the darkness augmented their 
sufferings. They were all, except the master, Richard 
Clarke, praying for death. On the sixth day after the 
wreck, Clarke, calm and collected, still endeavored to 
comfort them with the hope of soon making the laud. 
They expressed their doubts' that they should ever 
again cast their eyes on the welcome shore. He told 
them to throw him overboard if they did not make land 
on the seventh day ; and this rallied their spirits, for 
they seem to have reposed great trust in his skill and 
knowledge. 

The seventh day broke, and one hour before noon 
they got a sight of the shore. In the afternoon they 
landed, but were so weak that it was with difficulty 
they could assist each other out of the boat. They fell 
on their knees and thanked God for their deliverance. 
The stronger then helped the more feeble to a brook, 
where they refreshed themselves with the water, and 
quenched their intolerable thirst. They gathered and 
ate of some berries they found growing wild near the 
spot. 

The next day, Clarke divided them into parties of 
three, to search for food ; being to rendezvous together 
at noon, with what they could collect, for the common 
stock. They were fortunate enough to find a great 
quantity of peas growing wild. For three days they 
lived on these peas and on berries, and at night sheltered 
themselves in a hut, rudely constructed of the boughs 
of trees. 

They had preserved their boat, and, being a little 
recovered from their former feeble state, they rowed 
along the shore, with the design of making the Great 
Bay of Newfoundland, which was then annually fre- 
quented by Spaniards engaged in the whale fishery. 
When hungry, they landed to eat berries and peas. 



SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 23 

Tliey had not proceeded far in this way, when a Spanish 
ship fell in with them, the captain of which proved a 
kind friend. He took them to St. Jean de Luz, in the 
Bay of Biscay ; and when the Spaniards came on board, 
told them they were poor fishermen cast away at New- 
foundland. He set them on shore in the night, only 
ten miles from the French frontiers, which they reached 
before day broke, and, thus having escaped, travelled 
to England through France, where they safely arrived 
about the end of the year 1583. 

Their history having thus terminated, it will be proper 
to go back to the Golden Hinde and Squirrel. The 
crews of these ships, dispirited at the loss of the best 
vessel of the squadron, still continued to beat about in 
those thick fogs which are so common on the shores of 
Newfoundland. The crew of the Squirrel, already on 
short allowance, besought Sir Humphrey Gilbert to 
return to England. The crew of the Golden Hinde 
joined in the same request. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 
whose enthusiasm did not seem abated by his disasters, 
engaged them to accompany him again in the following 
spring. On the 31st of August they altered their course, 
during a fresh breeze and high sea, and directed it for 
their native land. 

Sir Humphrey had hurt his foot, and, on the 2d 
of September, went on board the Golden Hinde to get 
it dressed by the surgeon of that ship. He repeated 
the visit to partake of an entertainment with the captain, 
master, and crew. He spoke of his disappointment on 
losing his papers and some ore which the Saxon refiner 
had procured in Newfoundland, which had been lost in 
the Delight. The Squirrel was overloaded, having 
heavy artillery on board, and things on deck so much 
above her tonnage, that her situation at that season of 
the year was considered dangerous by those on board 



24 ' DAVIS.— BARENTZ. 

the Hinde. They advised Sir Humphrey to shift into 
the larger vessel. He generously replied in the nega- 
tive. ''I will not," said he, "now desert my little 
vessel and crew, after we have encountered so many 
perils and storms together. '' 

The Grolden Hinde supplied the boat of the Squirrel 
with what provisions were necessary, and Sir Humphrey 
returned in it to that ship. They were then about three 
hundred leagues on their voyage to England. A vessel 
of ten tons, laden like the Squirrel, was too small to 
resist the waves in the Atlantic. On the 9th of 
September she foundered, and Sir Humphrey perished, 
when they were in the latitude of England. The Squir- 
rel was near foundering in the afternoon of the same 
day she went down ; at which time, and when they 
were in imminent danger. Sir Humphrey was seen from 
the Hinde, sitting in the stern of the ship with a book 
in his hand, and was heard to call out, '' Courage, my 
lads ! we are as near heaven at sea as on land ! " It 
was about twelve o'clock at night when the ship went 
down. 

The three voyages by Davis, in 1585-88, enlarged 
the limits of research. By the discovery of the strait 
which still bears his name, he opened the way to Baffin's 
Bay and the Polar Sea ; he also surveyed a considerable 
extent of the Greenland coast. Various attempts to 
find a passage were also made during this century by 
Spaniards, French, Danes, and Dutch, those of the last- 
mentioned nation being the most memorable. To avoid 
the risk of a voyage to India across the ocean, over 
which Spain claimed the supremacy, they sought for a 
shorter passage by the north-east. 

The three voyag-es by William Barentz, 1594-96, 
afford striking examples of dangers encountered, and 
manful perseverance in struggling against them. He 



BARENTZ. 25 

made his way to the sea between Spitzbergen and Nova 
Zembla, until, to quote the narrative of the third voyage, 
" we came to so great a heape of ice that we could not 
sayle through it/' In August of the last-mentioned 
year, the vessel was embayed by an unusual drifting of 
the ice, which, crushing around them with a violence 
that "made all the haire of our heads to rise upright 
with feare," forced them "in great cold, povertie, 
miserie, and griefe, to stay all that winter." They 
exerted themselves to the utmost to avoid so terrible 
an alternative ; but on the 11th of September, as is 
related, "we saw that we could not get out of the ice, 
but rather became faster, and could not loose our ship, 
as at other times we had done, as also that it began to 
be winter, we tooke counsell together what we were 
best to doe, according to the time, that we might winter 
there, and attend such adventure as God would send 
us ; and after we had debated upon the matter (to 
keepe and defend ourselves both from the colde and 
wilde beastes), we determined to build a house upon 
the land, to keepe us therein as well as wee could, and 
so to commit ourselves unto the tuition of God." While 
casting about for material for the edifice, to their great 
joy they discovered a quantity of drift timber, which 
they regarded as a special interposition of Providence 
in their behalf, and "were much comforted, being in 
good hope that God would show us some further favour ; 
for that wood served us not onely to build our house, but 
also to burne, and serve us all the winter long ; other- 
wise, without all doubt, we had died there miserably 
with extreme cold." 

Parties were thereupon set to work to build the house>, 

and drag their stores from the ship on hand-sleds, in 

which labors they were grievously interrupted by bears 

and severity of the weather. If any one held a nail 

3 



26 BARENTZ. 

between his lips, the skin came off with as much pain, 
on taking it out again, as though the iron had been red- 
not ; yet, notwithstanding the cold, there was open sea 
for many weeks an " arrow-shot '' beyond their ship. 
The dwelling, slow in progress, was finished by the end 
of October, and thatched with sea-wrack, the more effect- 
ually to close the chinks in the roof and walls, and " we 
set up our dyall, and made the clocke strike." On the 
4th of November ''wee saw the sunne no more, for it 
was no longer above the horison ; then our chirurgion 
made a bath (to bathe us in) of a wine-pipe, wherein 
wee entred one after the other, and it did us much 
good, and was a great meanes of our health.'' All the 
spare clothing was distributed, regulations established 
with regard to diet, and duties apportioned ; the master 
and pilot being exempted from cleaving wood, and other 
rude labors. Traps were set to catch foxes for food, 
and cheerfulness was as much as possible promoted ; 
but at times they were snowed up, and could not open 
their door for many days, and had no light but that of 
their fire ; they were tormented with smoke, while ice 
two inches thick formed in their sleeping-berths. The 
clock stopped with the cold, after which they could 
only reckon time by ''the twelve-hour glass." 

The misery they endured may be judged of by the 
tone of some of the entries in their journal ; such suffer- 
ing was but too frequent : "It was foule weather 
againe, with an easterly wind and extreame cold, almost 
not to bee indured ; whereupon wee lookt pittifully one 
upon the other, being in great feare that if the extream- 
itie of the cold grew to bee more and more, wee should 
all dye there with cold ; for that what fire soever wee 
made it would not warme us ; yea, and our sacke, which 
is so hot, was frozen very hard, so that when we were 
every man to have his part, we were forced to melt it 



BARENTZ. 27 

in the fire, which we shared every second day about 
halfe a pint for a man, wherewith we were forced to 
sustayne ourselves ; and at other times we dranke water, 
which agreed not well with the cold, and we needed not 
to coole it with snow or ice ; but we were forced to 
melt it out of the snow." 

Linen froze in an instant taken out of warm water. 
The closeness of the hut nearly suffocated them from 
the smoke, and if the fire became low the walls were 
soon covered with thick ice, — even the beds were lined 
with it. Except when employed in cooking, they lay 
constantly in their beds. Oftentimes they heard tre- 
mendous noises like thunder break the fearful stillness 
of the unbounded frozen waste around them ; it seemed 
like the burstiug asunder of mountains, and the dashing 
them into atoms. This sound was probably caused by 
the fracture of the ice at sea. They knew not day 
from night, the moon shining brightly. On the Tth of 
December they went on board their ship for some coals, 
and made up a good fire in the evening, which gave 
them much comfort. They had a narrow escape, how- 
ever, from the vapor ; for, closing every aperture of 
the hut to keep in the heat as much as possible, a sea- 
man, who was indisposed, first complained of not being 
able to bear it, and then they were all attacked with 
vertigo, and could scarcely stand, until the door was 
opened, when the first who reached it fell down faint on 
the snow. Gerard de Veer recovered the fallen man by 
sprinkling his face with vinegar, and the fresh air rush- 
ing in restored them again. A glass of wine was then 
served out to each man to recover him completely. 

On the 19th of December they comforted them- 
selves that half the time of the sun's absence was over. 
The seamen's shoes were now frozen so hard that they 
could not be worn, and they made themselves slippers of 



28 BARENTZ. 

skins, and put on several pairs of socks together, to keep 
their feet in heat. The ice was an inch thick on the sides 
of their hut, and when they went out in clear weather 
their clothes became white with frost and ice. They 
increased the size of their fire, but from their recent 
warning kept an opening for the smoke. They had 
used all the wood laid up in their hut by the middle of 
January, and they were obliged to shovel away the 
snow on the outside to get at a fresh stock. This they 
found a task of great difficulty, from the excessive 
rigor of the climate. A party also proceeded to the 
ship, but found her frozen up as before, and the ice 
accumulated within. They caught a fox in the cabin, 
which they took to their hut and ate. 

They had been economical of their wine, but they 
kept Twelfth night with savings from their scanty allow- 
ance, thus making as merry as their dismal situation 
would permit. They fancied themselves at home in 
Holland.. They made pancakes with meal and oil, and, 
soaking biscuit in their wine, drank to the three kings 
of Cologne, and comforted themselves as if they had 
been at a '' great feast.'' They drew lots who should 
be king of Nova Zembla, and it fell to the gunner to be 
the monarch of that domain of cold and desolation. In 
short, they made themselves as happy as if they had 
been in their own houses among the dykes of Holland. 
Thus does enjoyment, even in the most adverse times, 
come to the very portal of misery at the mind's bidding. 

They had stormy weather for several succeeding days, 
till about the 15th of January, during which they 
confined themselves to their hut. They heard the foxes 
running over their heads, but could not catch them, 
which they regretted, as their provisions were beginning 
to run short. The intense cold absorbed every other 
sensation. They applied hot stones to their feet and 



BAEENTZ. 29 

bodies to keep them warm : comforting themselves, that 
now the sun was about returning to them, with a little 
patience he would warm and gladden them again with his 
beams. Even sitting before their fire, their backs would 
become white with frost, while their stockings would be 
burned before they could feel the heat to their feet. 

They visited their ship a second time, and found 
traces of bears ; and, going below, discovered the ice a 
foot higher in the hold than it had been originally. 
They had little hope now that their vessel would ever 
float again. 

Gerard de Veer and Jacob Heemskirk, going with a 
third person to the sea-side towards the south, on the 
24th of January, the day being clear, saw the edge of 
the sun above the horizon. They imparted the welcome 
news to their friends, but Barentz was incredulous, as 
the return was thought too early by fourteen days. 
For two days afterwards they had no opportunity ol- 
verifying the fact, owing to the weather being thick 
and cloudy. 

They lost one of their number on the 26th ; he had 
long been ill ; they dug a grave seven feet in the snow ; 
and then, as is mournfully recorded, " after that we 
had read certaine chapters and sung some psalmes, 
we all went out and buried the man.'' As the days 
lengthened, the light enabled them to take exercise, 
though the weather still remained as severe as before. 
A. slight relaxation of cold in February was followed in 
the next month by cold of increased rigor. They were 
totally blocked up in their hut by snow on the 24th 
of March. 

On the 6th of April they attempted to shoot a bear 

which approached close to their dwelling ; but their guns 

missed fire, and the animal came down the steps they 

had cut in the snow directly against their door. Tlie 

3* 



30 BARENTZ. 

captain, frightened and confused, could not fix the bar 
of wood which usually constituted the fastening, but they 
contrived to hold the door home so fast that the animal 
could not enter, and it then walked away. The creature 
soon returned again, roaring around the hut, to the great 
terror of the inmates ; at last it got on the roof, which 
they feared it would have broken, being quite furious. 
A sail hoisted on the outside of the hut the bear tore 
to pieces in his anger. No other injury ensued. 

The sea began to open, as early as the middle of 
March, to within seventy-five paces of the ship ; though 
a new frost came on, and increased the distance to five 
hundred on the 4th of May. They did not wait to 
see whether their vessel might again be serviceable. 
They preferred the chance of going in their boats, and 
of venturing in them to cross a sea three or four hundred 
leagues rather than to trust an uncertain event. 

Thej^ now set about j)reparations for departure. They 
repaired their two boats, and had good hope " to get 
out of that wilde, desart, irkesome, fearfull, and cold 
countrey.'^ On the 13th of June the survivors, 
twelve in number, left the desolate shore, after a stay of 
ten months. Their privations and exposures in small 
boats, in an ice-encumbered sea, may be imagined. 
Three of them perished, worn out with disease. The 
indefatigable Barentz himself at last succumbed. They 
had passed Icy Cape two days before. This cape is a 
headland in Russian America, in the Arctic Ocean, in 
lat. Y0°. 20'. N. ; Ion. 161°. 46'. W. ; it is the furthest 
land attained by Cook in 17*78. 

As they were approaching this cape, Barentz asked 
if they had yet reached it ; and, on being told it was in 
sight, requested he might be lifted up to see it once 
more, the ruling passion of this adventurous seaman 
being strong in death. About nine o'clock on the 



BARENTZ. 31 

morning' of the 20th, it was communicated to those 
who were in the launch that Claes Andriz was near his 
end, he being in the other boat. Barentz then told his 
companions he should not long survive Andriz. He 
was at the moment examining a chart of all the coun- 
tries and objects they had seen on their voyage, made 
by Gerard de Yeer. No one suspected that what he 
said was so immediately to be fulfilled. Putting the 
chart on one side, he asked De Veer to give him some- 
thing to drink. Barentz swallowed what was given 
him, and found himself worse immediately ; his eyes 
moved rapidly about for a moment, and he died so sud- 
denly, they had not time to call the captain, who was in 
the other boat. Andriz expired at nearly the same 
moment. The death of Barentz was a severe blow to 
his companions. Upon his experience and knowledge 
in navigation they relied for their safety in the future 
conduct of their navigation during a perilous voyage in 
boats, they hardly knew whither. 

They struggled on, however, manfully overcoming 
the perils that beset them ; and in September reached 
the coast of Lapland, where " wee saw some trees on the 
river side, which comforted us and made us glad, as if 
wee had then come into a new world ; for, in all the 
time that wee had been out, wee had not scene any 
trees. '^ On the eleventh of the same month, after a 
voyage of eleven hundred and forty-three miles, these 
brave-hearted men set up their boats in the " Merchants' 
house,'' at Coola, as " a sign and token of their deliv- 
erance ; " and, embarking on board a Dutch ship, in the 
course of a few weeks once more set foot in their native 
country. 

The survivors appeared before the people of Amster- 
dam in the dress they wore at Nova Zembla. Curiosity 
was awakened everywhere respecting them. They were 



32 HUDSON. 

taken to the ministers of foreign states, at the Hague, 
to relate their perils and give an account of the frigid 
land, which none of the southern natives had visited 
before. Their treatment on their arrival home must, in 
those days, have been an ample compensation to the 
survivors for their past sufferings. 

One of the boldest of early navigators, and one of the 
most successful, was Henry Hudson, the discoverer of 
the immense bay which will carry his name and unfor- 
tunate end to the latest times'. This intrepid mariner 
first distinguished himself in 160'7, being sent out by the 
Muscovy Company on a voyage, with instructions to 
penetrate directly to the pole. He succeeded in push- 
ing north as far as latitude 81^°, and returned home, 
after coasting Spitzbergen, with the conviction, which 
modern experience has not impugned, that a passage 
to the pole was completely barred out by the ice in that 
direction. In 1608, he again set sail, to decide the 
practicability of a north-east passage, then a favorite 
subject of debate in the maritime countries of Europe. 
He saw North Cape on the 3d of June, and reached 
latitude 15", when he got among the ice. He now 
pushed on in the parallels of 74° and 15° to the east- 
ward, and made the coast of JSFova Zembla, in latitude 
12° 25'; but, finding a further course impracticable, he 
returned, with the conviction that there was no hope 
of a north-east passage ; and here again time has proved 
his judgment to have been correct. 

The Dutch sent him, in 1609, to try this passage 
again ; but he gave it up, after passing Wardhuys, and, 
returning past North Cape, crossed to the coast of 
America, where he searched for a passage, and discov- 
ered the bay on which New York now stands, and the 
magnificent river named after him, the Hudson. On 
the nth of April, 1610, Hudson set sail in a vessel 



HUDSON. 33 

called the Discovery, of fifty-five tons' burthen, fitted 
out in the Thames, at the expense of Sir John 
Wolstenholme, Sir Dudley Digges, and other distin- 
guished persons, and victualled for six months. The 
ship touched at the Orkney and Faro Islands, and, on 
the 11th of May, the crew descried the south-eastern 
part of Iceland ; but hearing breakers, and a fog coming 
on, they cast anchor. They now found themselves 
embayed. Weighing anchor, they next proceeded 
northward along the western coast, taking a quantity 
of fine fish during a day's calm, which overtook them. 
A south-east wind then arose, and they reached the 
Vestmanna Isles, where the Danes had a fort, and passed 
the grand and awful mountain called Snow Fell, which 
towers to a vast height over those inhospitable and 
desert shores. They saw Mount Hecla in the blaze of 
an eruption, surrounded by eternal snows ; and fell in 
soon afterwards with a mass of ice, stretching far to the 
westward from the northern part of the island. Here 
Hudson entered a port in the north-west side, where they 
killed a quantity of wild fowl. They sailed, but were 
again obliged to put back, without being able to make 
the harbor, but fortunately fell in with another haven, 
where they found some hot springs, and bathed. The 
water of this spring was so hot it would boil a fowl. 

On the first of June they set sail for Greenland, and 
soon fancied they saw land to the westward, but it 
proved to be fog. It was not until the fourth that 
Greenland appeared in sight. The coast was lined with 
a vast barrier of ice. '' This day," says Hudson, " we 
saw Greenland perfectly, over the ice ; and this night 
the sun went down due north, and rose north-north-east ; 
so, plying the fifth day, we were in 65°.'' 

Their course lay mostly west and north-west, till 
Cape Desolation appeared on the western side. Here 



34 HUDSON. 

they saw a great number of whales. They now made 
their course north-west, the wind preventing them from 
sailing more to the north, and here they first fell in with 
the icebergs. At the end of June they saw an island, per- 
haps Resolution Island. Hudson would still have sailed 
more to the north, but the wind would not permit ; so he 
went south of the island, and found the current setting 
to the west. They entered the stream, and were carried . 
north-west, until they fell in with ice, which was attached 
to the shore. Hudson then kept to the south and west 
again, through floating ice, upon which they found 
numerous seals. They now had a clear sea, and sailed 
until they again encountered icebergs, and floating 
pieces of ice, keeping north-west. They saw an ice- 
berg overturn, and took warning from it not to approach 
too near them in future ; yet they were soon obliged to 
take shelter between two masses, owing to a storm, and 
there lie snug. 

On the cessation of the storm, they stood on, as they 
found it clear enough of ice around them to venture. 
Their course lay with the ice, and whenever it permitted 
them to make a passage they moved with it, though 
still enclosed. Hudson, trying to get clear of it by 
steering south, found the more he tried the worse they 
were off, until he could go no further. Here the navi- 
gator himself was in despair, thinking they should never 
get out of it. He, therefore, brought out his chart, and 
showed the crew that they had sailed a hundred leagues 
further than any of their countrymen had gone before, 
and left it to them to say whether they should proceed 
further or not. Some seem to have replied one way 
and some another, but there was evidently much growl- 
ing and discontent among them. After much labor they 
got clear, and shaped their course north and north-west 
It is most probable that the commander, seeing the dis- 



HUDSON. 36 

content of a part of his crew, ended the conference and 
took his own course. He still seems to have relied 
upon his own resources and courage, and to have con- 
tinued to pursue the object of his voyage, sometimes 
environed by the ice, yet often in a clear sea. He found 
a harbor among some islands, which he named the " Isles 
of God's Mercy. ^' Here some of the crew went on shore. 
They sav^ a bay to the north, with a large iceberg- 
aground, which afterwards floated away. They took in 
drift-wood, which they found cast up on the shore. 

After a good deal of sailing to the south and north- 
west, and west, and then south, as the intricate naviga- 
tion required, they stood to the westward in a clear, 
open sea, and saw three headlands, which Hudson 
named Prince Henry's Cape, King James's, and Queen 
Anne's. They now proceeded north to double the head- 
lands, until they saw the north shore, on which Hudson 
put about until he made the south land again, but very 
much to the west of what he expected, owing to a 
strong current, which arose, no doubt, from the set-in 
of the tide to the great bay which bears his name. They 
now saw a hill on the south shore, which they named 
Mount Charles ; and soon after a cape, which was called 
Cape Salisbury. Still proceeding along the south shore, 
they came to an island, distant from the mainland about 
two leagues, one point of which they named Deepe's 
Cape, the other Wolstenholme's. At this island the 
boat was sent on shore to make discoveries. Those in 
it were overtaken by a storm, but they succeeded in 
landing and climbing up the rocks, when they came to 
some level ground, in which they found a herd of deer, 
but could not get within musket-shot of them. On this 
island they found plenty of fowl, and some excellent 
herbage, also sorrel and scurvy grass. They saw some 
hollow cells of stone, in which they found a quantity of 



36 HUDSON. 

fowls hung up by the necks. The ship now fired a gun 
to call off the people who had landed, for a fog had come 
on. Upon returning on board, Hudson would not 
stay to refresh on the island, as some of the crew 
recommended, but proceeded, his mind, no doubt, con- 
templating the discovery of the great sea on which he 
was about to enter. 

At this time it was that the discontent, which had no 
doubt been increasing on board, was visited by an ex- 
ercise of the commander's authority. Some discussion, 
it appears, took place about entering a bay, and going 
out of it. On this occasion, Hudson is said to have 
revived some old grudge, and to have displaced one 
Juet from the situation of mate, and degraded the 
boatswain for words which had been spoken some time 
before, making Billet, or Bylot, his mate, and William 
Wilson his boatswain. The crew thought it harsh in 
Hudson to revive this old affair. They were obedient, 
however, and sailed again in a northerly direction until 
they saw land, and then to the south, and so on from 
land to land, on the opposite side the straits. On 
Michaelmas day they entered a bay, which Hudson 
named Michaelmas Bay. They afterwards stood to the 
north until they came into shoal water, with thick, foggy 
weather. They were now obliged to anchor, and so 
remained for eight days, when, the wind dropping, 
Hudson insisted on heaving the anchor up, against the 
opinions of those on board. While the crew were 
lifting the anchor, a sea struck the ship, and knocked 
all hands from the capstan, several of whom were much 
hurt. They lost an anchor, and would have lost all their 
cable, had not the carpenter fortunately been by with 
an axe and cut it. 

They now stood to the south and south-west, through 
a sea clear of obstructions, but changing in soundings 



HUDSON. 37 

and in color. After sailing further, they came into 
shallow water, — so shallow that their boat could not 
reach the shore, which they saw at some distance, and 
to which they were obliged to wade. There they 
discovered the marks of a man's foot in the snow, and 
plenty of wood, of which they shipped a good stock, 
and returned on board. Soon after, they saw a ledge 
of rocks, upon which they ran, and remained fast for 
twelve hours, but at length got off, not wholly unin- 
jured. 

They now began to look out for a place where they 
might winter. The nights were become long and cold, 
while the snow covered all the country. The party 
sent to explore were at first unsuccessful, but on the 1st 
of November they found a place where they might haul 
their vessel aground. By the tenth day they were 
frozen in, and began to look at their stock of provisions, 
when they found they must be fed upon such an allow- 
ance as would hardly keep in life, or last them to the 
headlands, where fowls might be captured for their 
supply. Hudson regulated the present allowances in 
the best jvay he could, and offered a reward to those 
who added to the general stock, by killing or capturing 
anything serviceable for food. In this they must have 
had success, or their subsistence from April, the ITth, 
even as far as Christmas, is a miracle, upon six months' 
victualling. 

It appears that, on taking up their winter quarters, it 
had been proposed to Hudson to erect a house on shore, 
which he would not hear of being done while it was 
practicable. The severe northern winter had set in, 
when he altered his mind, and desired the carpenter to 
put it in hand. The latter said he neither could nor 
would set about it. Hudson pursued to strike him, 
calling him names, and threatened to hang him. The 
4 



38 HUDSON. 

carpenter made his rejoinder by telling Hudson he knew 
his duty, — that he was no house-carpenter. Such, at 
least, is the story of Pricket, one of those who came 
home in the vessel ; but the subsequent noble conduct 
of the carpenter, in refusing to desert Hudson, shows 
that the latter must have stood high in his esteem and 
affection, notwithstanding this altercation. The house 
was ultimately built, but proved to be of no use. 

The winter was intensely cold, and the ship's com- 
pany ill provided with necessaries. Their sufferings 
were great, and most of them were lamed, or some way 
injured. They eked out their provisions by wild fowl 
of several kinds, having taken more than a hundred 
dozen of '' white partridges,'^ as they styled them. 
When these birds left in the spring, they had swans, 
geese, ducks, and teal. When these had gone away, 
they devoured moss, frogs, and buds. One of the crew 
having brought the buds of a tree full of some substance 
like turpentine, a decoction of it was made by the sur- 
geon for drink, and much ease was experienced by 
applying it hot to their frozen limbs. While the spring 
lasted, about the time the ice was breaking up, the 
savages visited them, and they trafficked with them, 
and gave the crew furs in exchange for knives, looking- 
glasses, and buttons. 

Hudson now prepared to return home. He delivered 
out the last pound of bread to each man, just as thoj 
were preparing for along and perilous voyage, without 
provisions for the entire crew for more than ten days ; 
and also gave what Pricket calls a '/ bill of returne,'' 
that if ever they got home they might show it, — and 
he wept as he gave it to them. Fourscore small fish, 
taken just afterwards, were a seasonable relief to them, 
though but little towards satisfying their hunger beyond 
the moment. 



HUDSON. 39 

They now set sail, and came to anchor in the sea of 
that immense bay, in which the discoverer, having 
undergone so much suffering and danger, was to find 
his grave. They were without bread ; five cheeses only 
were left, and these were equally divided by Hudson 
among his men. 

But a report calumnious of Hudson, for secreting 
bread, was now spread among the crew. The discon- 
tent which had been for some time excited by one Green, 
a worthless fellow, whom Hudson had befriended, broke 
out into open mutiny on the 21st of June. The 
ship's company, both sick and well, were in berths, dis- 
persed generally two and two about the ship. King, 
one of the crew who was supposed to be friendly to 
Hudson, was up, and in the morning they secured him 
in the hold by fastening down the hatches. Green 
then went and held the carpenter in conversation to 
amuse him, while two of the crew, keeping just 
before Hudson, and one, named Wilson, behind him, 
bound his hands. He asked what they were about, 
and they told him he should know when he was in the 
shallop. Another mutineer, Juet, went down to King 
in the hold, who kept him at bay, being armed with 
his sword. He came upon deck to Hudson, whom he 
found with his hands tied. Hudson was heard to call 
to the carpenter, and tell him he was bound. Two of 
the devoted party, who were sick, told the muti- 
neers their knavery would be punished. They paid no 
attention ; the shajlop was hauled up to the side 
of the vessel, and the sick and lame were made to get 
into it. 

The carpenter, whom they had agreed to retain in the 
vessel, asked them if they would not be hanged when 
they reached England, and boldly refused to remain 
with them, preferring to share the fate of Hudson and 



40 HUDSON. 

the sick men. He demanded his chest, which was 
given him, and put into the boat. The names of the 
persons put out of the ship were Henry Hudson, John 
Hudson, Arnold Lodlo, Sydrack Faner, Phillip Staffe, 
Thomas Wodehouse, Adam Moore, Henry King, and 
Michael Bate. The carpenter contrived to get a musket, 
powder and shot, some pikes, an iron pot, some meal, 
and a few other necessaries. The crew then cast the 
boat off the ship, loosened the topsails, and stood out 
to sea, steering to the eastward. The boat in which 
were Hudson and his companions was seen no more, 
nor was it ever heard of again. 

The mutineers now stood to the north-east, contrary 
to Juet's opinion, who was for steering north-west. 
The next day they had a storm, and ran into ice, where 
they remained fourteen days, locked up. In that storm 
the intrepid commander and his forlorn party in the boat 
may have perished. It is probable they either died of 
hunger at sea, or got out of their course, and perished 
in the storm. They might, indeed, have been starved 
on the shore, or killed by the aborigines. The end of 
Hudson is a melancholy and affecting incident. His 
talents, courage, and perseverance, rank him among the 
first navigators of any age. In the comparative infancy 
of discovery in the northern regions, he deserves to 
take the lead. Left in the great bay which he brought 
to light, the victim of treachery, he has not been for- 
gotten by posterity, like many of his contemporaries. 
The mystery of his fate causes hjs name to be pro- 
nounced, even now, with pity, while his skill and 
courage make the man an object of our admiration, 
even in these times, when a northern navigation and 
wintering are not considered such extraordinary perils 
by the navigator. 

The ship continued her navigation homeward. Steer- 



HUDSON. 41 

ing north-east, the mutineers shaped their course for 
the capes or headlands where, as they supposed, the 
wild fowl frequented. Landing on one of these, in 
search of fowl, they fell in with a party of natives, who 
behaved so peaceably that the Englishmen soon began 
to traffic with them. For this purpose, they ran the 
ship in as near to the land as was practicable, and sent 
a boat ashore laden with goods. Leaving Pricket in 
charge of the boat, the rest of her crew, one of whom 
was Green, landed and mixed among the natives, show- 
ing them looking-glasses and other articles. Suddenly, 
one of the savages came into the boat and attacked 
Pricket with a knife. He defended himself, and a deadly 
struggle ensued, in which the savage was at last killed. 
In the mean while, those of the crew on shore were 
attacked. Thomas and Wilson were stabbed in the 
bowels ; Perse and Green, both dreadfully wounded, 
fell together into the boat ; Meter jumped from the 
rocks into the sea, and swam to the boat, where, hold- 
ing the stern, he begged to be taken in ; Perse beat off 
the savages with a hatchet, and Green with a frag- 
ment of a pike. The savages then took their bows and 
arrows. Green was killed on the spot ; Perse received 
many other wounds, as did all the others, but he pushed 
off the boat, having taken in Meter, Perse and Meter 
then rowed away, while Pricket received a bad wound 
in his back from an arrow, as the boat came round. 
The savages ran to their canoes, but did not pursue the 
crew. They regained the ship, but three died of their 
wounds. There were now scarcely hands enough left 
to work the ship through the entrance of the strait ; 
and the same men who worked the ship were obliged 
to go in the boat and kill fowls for subsistence on the 
passage home. With great labor, they killed three 
hundred, which they salted. They then sailed to the 
4^ 



42 BAFFIN. 

Cape of God's Mercies, and thence bent their course 
for Cape Desolation, in Greenland. But, the wind coming 
on adverse, they shaped their course for Ireland. They 
suffered, during the passage, the most dreadful extremi- 
ties of famine, allowing only half a fowl a day to each 
man, and considering it a luxury to have it fried with 
candles, of which a weekly distribution was made 
for that purpose. Ivet, now the sole survivor of the 
ringleaders in the atrocious conspiracy, sank under 
these privations. The last fowl was in the steep-tub, 
and the men were become nearly desperate, when sud- 
denly it pleased God to give them sight of land, which 
proved to be the north of Ireland. They complain that, 
on going ashore at Berehaven, they did not receive the 
sympathy and kindness which they so much needed ; 
nor was it until they had mortgaged their vessel that 
they obtained the means of proceeding to Plymouth. 

Strange to relate, no attempt was made to bring the 
mutineers to trial ; some of them, indeed, were after- 
wards employed in making further explorations. 

Great hopes were entertained that the much-desired 
passage would be found leading out of Hudson's Bay ; 
and a good deal of controversy on the question arose, 
from time to time, among contending. voyagers and their 
abettors. Between this period and 1616, those arms of 
the sea known as Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome and Fox 
Channel were discovered ; and in the year just men- 
tioned Baffin sailed into and explored the vast bay, 
eight hundred miles long, and three hundred wide, 
named after him. For a long time his report of its 
great length was disbelieved, but later researches have 
confirmed the accuracy of his statements ; even the 
latitudes laid down by him are almost identical with 
those recently determined, with all the advantage of 
superior instruments. Among other openings, Baffin 



BAFFIN. 



43 



saw Lancaster Sound, and, had he explored it. Parry's 
discoveries would have been anticipated by two hundred 
years, as they had been to some extent by the long- 
forgotten Northmen. The opinion, however, at that 
time, and, indeed, until within the past fifty years, 
was, that no practicable opening to the Polar Sea 
existed, except that at Behring's Strait. From this 
period to about the middle of last century, the outlets 
to the west of Hudson's Bay were the points to which 
efi'ort was directed ; and truly may it be said, that these 
earlier navigators left very little for those who came 
later. In small vessels; varying from ten to fifty tons' 
burthen, they accomplished more than has since been 
effected by lavishly-equipped expeditions. 




THE WALRUS. 



CHAPTER II. 

EITSSIAN EXPLORATIONS. — DHSHNEFF. — EXPEDITIONS OE 1711. FRUIT- 
LESS EFFORTS. — LAPTEPP. BEHRING. — HIS SHIPWRECK AND DEATH. 

— FATE OP THE SURVIVORS. SCHALAROFF. — SLEDGE EXPEDITION. 

ADMIRAL VON WRANGELL's EXPEDITIONS. 

Hitherto we have been chiefly occupied with the 
explorations on and around Northern America, and we 
now come to the history of those along the continent 
of Asia, the northern limit of which extends over a 
space of 145° of longitude. The discovery and survey 
of this vast region is due entirely to the Eussians ; for, 
although other nations attempted the passage, they 
penetrated no further than the Karskoie Sea and Cape 
North on the east. The first knowledge of the coun- 
tries which here bound the polar basin was, as in the 
case of the other continent, derived from private adven- 
turers, who undertook journeys into thos-e desolate 
regions in hopes of a profitable trade in furs, skins, and 
ivory, Russian traders, sailing from the White Sea 
and mouth of the Petchora, voyaged as far as Obi and 
the lennissei ; their vessels, similar to those of early 
British navigators, were little better than shallops, and 
it is impossible not to be struck with the labors of those 
whose chief resource was indomitable perseverance. 

The first endeavors under government authority 
were made about the year 1600 ; and trading-stations 
were established at the mouths of most of the larger 



RUSSIAN EXPLORATIONS. — DESHNEFF. 45 

rivers, with the double view of exploration and of sub- 
jecting the natives to Russian authority. The Lena, 
lana, Indigirka, Alaseia, and Kolyma, were discovered 
before 1640, by parties sent under Cossack leaders to 
collect tribute, who at the same time fell in with the 
Tchuktches, and heard their reports of islands lying 
off the coast. The earliest attempt to sail to eastward 
of the Kolyma was made in 1646, and repeated in the 
two following years, with several small vessels, all of 
which were wrecked, except one commanded by Desh- 
neff, a government functionary, whose name stands high 
among the early explorers. His grand object was to 
get round to the mouth of the Anadyr, on the eastern 
coast, to trade for sable-skins ; and the summer of 1648 
proving favorable to navigation among the ice, he sailed 
along the shore, and through the strait explored by 
Behring nearly a century later, and founded a settle- 
ment at the place to which he was bound — the Anadyr 
river. This is the only occasion on which such a voyage 
has been made ; and to Beshneff and his companions 
belongs the honor of having been the first and sole 
navigators from the Arctic Sea to the Pacific, and of 
having proved, at a period much earlier than is com- 
monly supposed, that the American and Asiatic conti- 
nents are not united. 

Other expeditions followed ; the Bear Islands were 
seen ; and, to obtain accurate particulars concerning 
them, the government of Siberia sent out two parties, in 
1111, who crossed the ice to the Likahoff Islands, and 
saw others yet further to the north. On their return to 
the mainland, the leaders were murdered by the crews, 
who feared the hardships of further explorations. Thus 
the work went on with varying fortune, the positions 
mostly ill-defined, as must be the case in the absence of 
accurate instruments, until 1134, the reign of the 



46 FRUITLESS EFFORTS.— LAPTEFF. — BEHRING. 

Empress Anne, when the Eussian admiralty fitted out 
three expeditions *' to obtain a correct knowledge of 
the northern coast of Siberia from the White Sea to 
Behring's Strait ; " " one, consisting of two vessels, 
was to sail from Archangel eastward to the mouth of 
the Obi ; another, from the Obi to the lennissei. The 
third was to sail from the Lena, and consisted of two 
vessels, one of which was to sail westward to the len- 
nissei, and the other eastward, past the Kolyma, to 
Behring's Strait.'^ 

Insurmountable impediments to navigation, recall of 
commanders, wintering in the rivers, overland journeys 
to St, Petersburg, renewed attempts, scurvy, and ship- 
wreck, comprise the history of these expeditions. One 
of the mates, in observations on the compass, makes 
the remark, " The variation of the needle was so great, 
and it was so unsteady, that I am inclined to believe the 
magnet ceases to act in these high latitudes." This 
fact is worthy of record, as bearing on phenomena 
which have subsequently been regarded with much 
attention. But, on the main question, the Russian ad- 
miralty refused to receive the reports of impossible 
navigation ; and, in 1739, sent out another expedition, 
under Lieut. Lapteff, who, by dint of perseverance in 
four successive voyages, did at last pass to th5 eastward 
of the Kolyma ; but here fields of ice, extending far to 
the north, barred his further progress. 

Next in order come the voyages by Behring, the 
explorer of the strait which bears his name. In the 
year 1*741 this celebrated navigator set sail from the 
harbor of St. Peter and St. Paul, in Kamtschatka, in two 
vessels, from which he had named the port. It was the 
4th of June when they weighed anchor, and on the 
12th they had reached latitude 46° without seeing land. 
They proceeded as high as 50° of latitude with little 



BEHRING. 47 

success. They now determined to steer eastward, 
towards the American continent. On the 20th the two 
ships were separated by a storm, followed by hazy 
weather. 

On the 18th of July, Behring, while waiting for the 
other vessel, discovered the American continent, in lat- 
itude 58° 28', and in 50° longitude, from Awatska. Three 
days before, Captain Tschirikov, who commanded the 
second vessel, had fallen in with the same coast, at 56° 
latitude, and 50° longitude, from Awatska. He sent on 
shore his long-boat and shallop with seventeen men, to 
observe the coast, but neither the one nor the other 
ever returned. Upon a consultation, in consequence, 
held on board, it was resolved to return to Kamtschatka. 
Behring, in the mean time, endeavored to explore the 
coast he first saw, and to take in water. He set sail on 
the 21st of July, determined to run as high as 60° north. 
He found it impossible to advance direct, the coast con- 
stantly running out to the south-west. He found him- 
self in a labyrinth of islands which bordered the conti- 
nent, so that often, when he thought himself clear, he 
discovered land on the larboard and starboard bow. 
He was then obliged to drop astern, and find a passage 
that way, encountering great difficulties from calms and 
currents. 

On the 3d of September, while still among those 
islands, they discovered some of the inhabitants, by 
whom they were well received. The natives presented 
whale's flesh to the Russians, — the only provision they 
had with them, — and seemed to desire they would regale 
themselves. They had been on a fishing expedition, as 
their canoes were drawn up on the shore ; but no females 
or habitations were seen, their dwellings probably being 
on the mainland. They were unarmed. After some other 
communications with the natives, and encountering 



48 BEHRING. 

contrary winds, the Russians were overtaken by a vio- 
lent storm, which lasted for seventeen days. They 
found, though they had not kept up their sails, that 
they had been driven back to 48° 18' of latitude. The 
scurvy now began to appear among them ; hardly a day 
passed without the death of one of the crew, and hands 
enough, in health, were scarcely left to manoeuvre the 
vessel. 

A return to Kamtschatka was resolved upon. After 
discovering and naming several capes and islands, they 
saw two which, by an unfortunate mistake, they took 
for the two first of the Kourile Isles. By this they 
erred in their reckoning. They in vain took their course 
to the west ; the shore of Kamtschatka remained invisi- 
ble, and there was soon no hope, so late in the season, 
of making a port in that country. The crew, notwith- 
standing their sufferings from cold and continued rain, 
attended to their duty. The scurvy had already so far 
advanced that the steersman was conducted to the helm 
by two other invalids, who happened still to have the 
use of their legs, by supporting him under the arms. 
When he could no longer steer, from suffering, he was 
succeeded by another no better able to execute the labor 
than himself. Thus did the miserable crew waste away 
into death. They were obliged to carry few sails, for 
they had not hands to reef them, if at any time it 
should be required ; and such as they had were nearly 
worn out, so that the slightest storm was sufficient to 
shiver them into threads ; in this case they could not 
be replaced from the stores, for want of sailors able to 
bend new ones. The rain was soon succeeded by snow. 
The nights now grew longer and darker, and they had 
now, in addition to their former precautions, to guard 
against shipwreck. The fresh water on board was rap- 



BEHRING. 49 

idly diminishing. The labor of the ship became too 
hard for the few who were still able to be about. 

For some days the ship had remained impassive in 
the water, lying as the wind and waves drove her. On 
the 4th of November they again endeavored to sail to 
the westward, without knowing in what latitude they 
were, or at what distance from Kamtschatka ; but it 
was the only point on which a single hope of their 
deliverance remained. The joy of the crew, when they 
came in sight of land, may be conceived ; it was about 
eight o'clock in the morning. They attempted to 
approach, but they were still at a great distance, and 
could only see the tops of mountains covered with 
snow. As they drew nearer, night came upon them. 
It was judged best, therefore, to keep out to sea until 
day appeared, that they might not be exposed to ship- 
wreck in the dark. In the morning they found the 
cordage on the starboard side of the vessel had given 
way. They could not, therefore, manage the ship much 
longer. A consultation was held. It was agreed that 
the ship was no longer manageable, that the water was 
much diminished, and the sickness on board increased. 
The humidity had been succeeded by intense cold, of 
which the increase was now, from the season, to be 
expected, and life must soon become insupportable. It 
was, therefore, decided, at all risks, to make for the 
land, to save their lives, and, perhaps, their ship. 

The small sails were alone set, from the weakness of 
the mast, after the failure of the cordage. The wind 
was north ; the depth of water thirty-six fathoms, with 
a jottom of sand ; two hours after, they found twelve 
fathoms. They now contrived to get overboard an 
anchor, and run it out three quarters of a cable's length. 
At six the cable parted, and tremendous waves bore the 
ship upon a rock, where she struck twice, yet, in a 
6 



50 BEHRING. 

moment after, they had five fathoms of water. A sec- 
ond anchor was thrown out, and the cable again parted. 
They had no third anchor ready. While they were pre- 
paring to let go another, a huge wave lifted the vessel 
over the reef In an instant she lay in calm water. 
The anchor was put out, and she was safely moored in 
four fathoms and a half, with a sandy bottom, and only 
about three hundred fathoms from the shore. The next 
morning they discovered that, by a good providence, 
they had been led to the only spot where it was pos- 
sible they could have been carried over the ridge of 
rocks, and that twenty fathoms' distance right or left 
of the place high rocks rose out of the sea, against 
which they must have perished during the darkness of 
the night. 

Winter was now come. The crew, worn down with 
fatigue, reposed until mid-day, and then the boat was 
lowered. On the 6th of November, the second in 
command, Mr. Waxall, landed. They found the coun- 
try barren, and covered with snow. A clear stream of 
excellent water,, not yet frozen, ran down from the 
mountains to the shore. No trees, or even shrubs, 
were visible. Firewood might be obtained from what 
the sea had drifted on the land, but it must be collected 
from under the snow. Hut or shelter there was none ; 
but they discovered near the banks of a torrent some 
deep hollows in the sand, which they prepared to clear 
out, and cover over with the ship's sails, so as to make 
a shelter, until they could construct cabins of wood. It 
was accordingly resolved to take the sick on shore the 
next day, as soon as places were prepared for them. 

On the 8th of November they were landed. Some 
died on being brought up into the air from below, oth- 
ers in the boat, and some upon getting ashore. The 
bodies of the dead were instantly attacked by foxes, 



BEHRING. 51 

which came to their prey without fear, as if they had 
never before seen man. They were obliged to drive 
these animals away from the corpses, the feet and 
hands of which were mangled before they could be 
interred. On the 9th of November the captain was 
landed, well secured from the atmosphere, and placed 
in a hollow by himself. The sick were all brought to 
the land in a day or two more ; but it was remarked 
that, of all who took to their beds in the ship, not one 
survived. These were principally sutfj as were indif- 
ferent to existence, or feared the disease, and suc- 
cumbed to it. Their disorder commenced with extreme 
lassitude, which made the person attacked spiritless, 
and indifferent to everything. A sort of asthma then 
came on, which was felt on the smallest movement of 
the body. The person attacked preferred inactivity, 
and would rather lie down and die than move about. 
Soon after, the limbs were struck with severe pains, 
the legs became inflamed, the skin yellow, the body 
covered with livid marks, the teeth loose, and the 
mouth and gums bloody. Some of those attacked were 
nervous, and terrified at the slightest sound they heard. 
Others seemed to eat heartily, and did not think them- 
selves in danger. They quitted their hammocks when 
they heard the order for going on shore, dressed them- 
selves, and believed they should quickly be well. On 
leaving the interior of the ship, and the close, corrupted 
air of the hold, and coming into the keen atmosphere, 
they speedily expired. 

Those survived who resisted the complaint so much 
as not to take to their beds, — who kept in motion on 
their feet as much as possible, especially if they suc- 
ceeded, by natural lightness of temper, in driving away 
melancholy thoughts. The instances of successful re- 
sistance to the disorder were most observed in the offi- 



52 BEHRING.— HIS DEATH. 

cers of the ship, who were obliged to be on deck to 
look into everything. The captain, alone, of all the 
officers, died. His age and temperament inclined him 
to inactivity. He took his friends, at last, for his ene- 
mies, and some could not come into his sight, on that 
account, towards the close of his illness. Two of the 
officers took the disease by remaining on board in the 
bad air of the hold, after the crew had quitted the ship, 
but they both recovered. 

Behring die(^|^on the 8th of December, 1741, on 
the island which now bears his name. He had a great 
passion for voyages and travels in his youth, and had 
seen many parts of the world, and a great deal of ser- 
vice. In a previous voyage he had sailed through the 
strait that bears his name. He had served under Peter 
the Great; was made lieutenant in 1707, and captain- 
lieutenant in 1110. He was thus a seaman from his 
cradle, and was chosen to command the expedition 
from Kamtschatka on account of his previous services. 
He left his name a record to the end of time in the 
straits that separate Asia and America. His death was 
singular. He was almost buried before he breathed his 
last sigh. His men placed him in the most commodi- 
ous spot, the day after the disembarkation of the sick 
commenced. He was borne with great care into a sort 
of tent, upon or rather in the sand, and as well secured 
as possible. Every day he detached the loose sand 
from the sides of the place where he lay, so that he 
soon covered his feet with it. Those who attended him 
cleared it away, but at last he would not suffer them to 
doit any more. He showed anger if it were attempted, 
and by degrees had so accumulated it about him that 
when he died he was half covered. They buried him 
near the spot ; and the island is his monument, bearing 
his name in the charts of all nations. 



FATE OF THE SURVIVORS. 53 

Not long after the death of the captain, the Russians 
saw their vessel wrecked before their eyes. It was 
their only means of escape from the dreary spot in 
which they were wintering. A storm arose on the 
29th of December, the cable snapped, and the ship 
came ashore almost close to where the Russians were 
living. In the morning she was found buried eight 
or ten feet in sand, and completely shattered. The sea 
had spoiled a great proportion of their remaining pro- 
visions. This was a fearful loss to them. 

They had now two important objects to attain. The 
first was to discover on what part of the world they 
had been cast. The second, to find the means of sub- 
sistence. Parties were sent out to explore. After an 
absence of three days, one returned, and stated that 
they had not perceived the least trace of men, but they 
had seen a great number of what were called in Kamt- 
schatka sea-beavers. They had also seen a great num- 
ber of blue and white foxes, which showed no signs of 
fear upon observing them. Hence they concluded that 
the country on which they had landed was not inhab- 
ited. They set out again more in the interior of the 
island, with the design to cross the country to the 
opposite side from that where they had come on shore. 
They found a high hill three or four leagues from the 
sea, and, ascending it, could see the sea both to the 
eastward and westward of them, from which observa- 
tion they had no doubt they were upon an island. They 
found no trees, except a few willows on the sides of a 
rivulet. 

Having thus satisfied themselves they were upon an 
island, they proceeded to examine what stores and pro- 
visions had been left them that they could use. They 
first made a reserve of eight hundred-weight of flour, 
which was to serve as sea stock in their voyage to 
5* 



54 PREPARATIONS FOR RETURN, 

Kamtschatka, after which they regulated the daily 
allowance of each person. Although thirty of the crew 
had died, there would not have been suflScient for their 
subsistence, had there not been wild animals on the 
island to eke out their stores. 

The flesh of the beavers was hard and stringy. They 
killed a great number for their skins, of which they 
collected nine hundred. The surgeon had three hun- 
dred to his own share when they embarked from the 
island to return to Siberia. 

In the month of March no more beavers were seen, 
and in their places seals made their appearance. The 
flesh of these animals they found disagreeable. They 
were relieved from the necessity of feeding upon them 
by killing sea-lions, the flesh of which they found excel- 
lent. The walrus, or sea-horse, was also taken, and 
served them for food. One of these, of ei^ht hundred- 
weight, was sufficient for fifteen days' consumption. 
The flesh was like beef, and that of the young ones not 
inferior to the best veal. The fat, which lined the flesh 
to the depth of three or four inches, very much resem- 
bled lard ; and the Russians used it as a substitute for 
butter. They filled several hogsheads with the- flesh, 
which they salted, as part of their provisions for their 
future voyage^. 

A whale came on shore during the winter near their 
habitation, and, being short of other food at the time, 
they cut out the blubber in square masses, and boiled it 
to separate the oil, which they ate. On the commence- 
ment of spring, a second whale was cast on shore in the 
same way, and then, rejecting the stale meat, they sup- 
plied themselves with that which was more fresh,. 

When the snow melted in the month of March, 1'742, 
these unfortunate men began to think of some means of 
return. They were forty-five in number. The chief 



LAUNCH OF THE VESSEL. 55 

officer, Mr, Waxall, proposed that the old vessel should 
be pulled to pieces, and a new one constructed, of a size 
to carry them all. This plan was unanimously adopted. 
It was now the beginning of April, a favorable time to 
commence operations. All took their share in the work, 
and the entire month was employed in breaking up the 
wreck to obtain materials for the new vessel. 

Three Russian carpenters had died since their arrival 
on the island, and there was not one left. A Cossack 
of Siberia, named Sawa Slaradoubzov, who had worked 
in the yard at Okhotsk, offered to construct the vessel if 
the proportions were given to him. He succeeded in 
laying down the new ship, a service considered of such 
importance, as well as ingenuity, that he was rewarded, 
on his return, by being elevated to the rank of Sinboiar- 
skoy, the lowest degree of nobility in Russia. 

On the 6th of May they began to construct their 
new ship. It was forty feet long by thirteen broad. 
At the beginning of June it was ready for planking up, 
the frame being complete. It had but one mast and 
deck, a cabin was built on the poop, and a cooking 
place in the forepart of the vessel ; it had four places 
for oars on each side. Many things were still want- 
ing, but they nevertheless proceeded to calk the planks, 
that the ship might be got ready for sea. They took 
care to construct a boat to accompany their vessel, capa- 
ble of holding nine or ten persons. 

They launched their vessel on the 10th of August, 
and called it the St. Peter, after the ship out of which 
she had been built. The shot and iron- work of the old 
vessel they employed for ballast in the new. The 
weather was fortunately calm for six days, during which 
time they got in the mast and rudder, bent the sails, and 
took in their provisions. Their vessel drew five feet 
water. All having embarked, they set sail on the 16th. 



56 SCHALAROFF. 

They cleared the rocks by the aid of their oars, and 
continued to row until they were about three leagues at 
sea, when they hoisted their sails with a slight breeze 
from the north. They found that their ship sailed and 
worked as well as if she had been built by able work- 
men. On the 18th, they had a strong gale against them 
from the south-west. The fear of a storm made them 
fling a part of their ballast overboard. On the 25th, 
they came in sight of Kamtschatka, entered the Bay of 
Awatska the next day, and on the 27th anchored in 
the port of Petropalaiiski. 

In 1*760, Schalaroff, a merchant of Yakutsk, whose 
name is venerated throughout Siberia, determined on 
trying whether the passage attempted by Behring could 
or could not be accomplished. He persevered during 
three seasons, in defiance of mutiny and hardships innu- 
merable. He, too, was wrecked on the desolate coast 
seventy miles east of Cape Chelagskoi, and, with all his 
crew, died of starvation. Three years later. Sergeant 
Andrejeff conducted a sledge expedition across the ice to 
the Bear Islands ; his reports, which were much exagger- 
ated, led shortly afterwards to the accurate survey of 
this and the adjacent country. Cook's exploration, 
of which we shall hereafter speak, led to another expe- 
dition on the part of the Russians, which sailed from 
the Kolyma in 1*781, under Captain Billings ; but the 
attempts made to navigate either to the east or the west 
were both defeated. Further efforts were made at inter- 
vals during the first quarter of the present century, some 
of them mainly to search for the northern continent, 
whose existence, far in the Polar Sea, had so often been 
the subject of rumor. 

Last we come to the expeditions commanded by 
Lieutenant Anjou and Admiral von Wrangell, carried 
on also by means of dogs and sledges, from the year 



VON WRANGELL. 57 

1820 to 1823 ; the latter taking the mouth of the 
Kolyma for his starting-point, the former the river 
lana. These undertakings were especially promoted 
by the Emperor Alexander, and were conducted with 
all the care and skill warranted by an advanced state 
of science and philosophy. They failed but in one par- 
ticular — the discovery of the northern continent. How 
diligently and perseveringly this was searched for, 
is best proved by the narrative of perils endured, even 
to the risk of life, in the arduous enterprise. Three 
times was the frozen surface of the sea traversed with- 
out leading to any definite result ; on the fourth jour- 
ney, in March, 1823, Von Wrangell reached the latitude 
of ^0° 51', longitude 115° 2t' west — one hundred and 
five wersts in a direct line from the mainland. Sound- 
ings gave a depth of twenty-two and a half fathoms ; the 
ice here was thin and weak. More than once the party 
had only been saved from breaking through by the speed 
at which the dogs travelled over it. In the distance a 
screen of dense blue vapor — a certain indication of open 
water — was visible, on which the admiral remarks : 

" Notwithstanding this sure token of the impossibil- 
ity of proceeding much further, we continued to go due 
north for about nine wersts, when we arrived at the 
edge of an immense break in the ice, extending east and 
west further than the eye could reach, and which at the 
narrowest part was more than a hundred and fifty fath- 
oms across. * * * * Y\^q climbed one of the loftiest ice- 
hills, where we obtained an extensive view towards the 
north, and whence we beheld the wide, immeasurable 
ocean spread before our gaze. It was a fearful and 
magnificent, but to us a melancholy spectacle. Frag- 
ments of ice of enormous size floated on the surface of 
the agitated ocean, and were thrown by the waves with 
awful violence against the edge of the ice-field on the 



58 VON WRANGELL. 

further side of the channel before us. The collisions 
were so tremendous, that large masses were every 
instant broken away ; and it was evident that the por- 
tion of ice which still divided the channel from the oi^en 
ocean would soon be completely destroyed. Had we 
attempted to have ferried ourselves across upon one of 
the floating- pieces of ice, we should not have found firm 
footing upon our arrival. Even on our own side, fresh 
lanes of water were continually forming, and extending 
in every direction in the field of ice behind us. With 
a painful feeling of the impossibility of overcoming the 
obstacles which nature opposed to us, our last hope van- 
ished of discovering the land, which we yet believed to 
exist.'' 

On returning from this extreme limit of their adven- 
turous journey, the party were placed in a situation of 
extreme risk. " We had hardly proceeded one worst," 
writes M. von Wrangell, '' when we found ourselves in 
a fresh labyrinth of lanes of water, which hemmed us in 
on every side. As all the floating pieces around us 
were smaller than the one on which we stood, which 
was seventy-five fathoms across, and as we saw many 
certain indications of an approaching storm, I thought 
it better to remain on the larger mass, which offered us 
somewhat more security ; and thus we waited quietly 
whatever Providence should decree. Dark clouds now 
rose from the west, and the whole atmosphere became 
filled vtdth a damp vapor. A strong breeze suddenly 
sprang up from the west, and increased in less than 
half an hour to a storm. Every moment huge masses 
of ice around us were dashed against each other, and 
broken into a thousand fragments. Our little party re- 
mained fast on our ice-island, which was tossed to and 
fro by the waves. We gazed in most painful inac- 
tivity on the wild conflict of the elements, expecting 



VON WRANGELL. 



59 



every moment to be swallowed up. We had been three 
long hours in this position, and still the mass of ice 
beneath us held together, when suddenly it was caught 
by the storm, and hurled against a large field of ice. 
The crash was terrific, and the mass beneath us was 
shattered into fragments. At that dreadful moment, 
when escape seemed impossible, the impulse of self- 
preservation implanted in every living being saved us. 
Instinctively we all sprang at once on the sledges, and 
urged the dogs to their full speed. They fiew across 
the yielding fragments to the field onf which we had 
been stranded, and safely reached a part of it of firmer 
character, on which were several hummocks, and where 
the dogs immediately ceased running, conscious, appa- 
rently, that the danger was past. We were saved : we 
joyfully embraced each other, and united in thanks to 
God for our preservation from such imminent peril." 

More than once during this trip the party heard from 
the Tchuktches that land could be seen far away in the 
northern seas. The part of the coast alluded to was 
Cape Jakan, which the explorers afterwards visited ; 
but, although " they gazed long and earnestly on the 
horizon, in hopes, as the atmosphere was clear, of dis- 
cerning some appearance of the northern land," they 
"could see nothing of it." 




CHAPTER III. 

OFFER OF PARLIAMENT. — HEAKNe'S JOURNEY. — PHIPPS. — NELSON. — 
COOK. — MACKENZIE. — SIR JOHN ROSS'S FIRST VOYAGE. — BITCHAN AND 
FRANKLIN. DANGEROUS SITUATION OF THE TRENT AND DOROTHEA. 

In 1*143 the British Parliament offered a reward of 
twenty thousand pounds to any one who should sail to 
the north-west by way of Hudson's Strait, which passage, 
it was declared, would be "of great benefit and advan- 
tage to the kingdom.'' Between 1169-12 Mr. Hearne 
undertook three overland journeys across the territories 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, to the shores of the Polar 
Sea. He failed in the first two attempts ; in the third 
he succeeded in reaching a large and rapid river, — the 
Coppermine, — and followed it down nearly to its mouth ; 
but, as there is reason to believe, without actually view- 
ing the sea. The proof of the existence of the river 
was the most important result of Mr. Hearne's labors ; 
for such scientific observations as he attempted are 
loose and unsatisfactory. 

In the following year (HIS), in consequence of com- 
munications made to the Royal Society on the possi- 
bility of reaching the North Pole, Captain Phipps (after- 
wards Lord Mulgrave) was sent out with two vessels 
to effect this interesting object. He coasted the eastern 
shore of Spitzbergen to 80° 48' of latitude, and was 
there stopped by the ice. With Phipps on this expe- 
dition was Nelson, the* future naval hero of England, 
then a mere boy. Young as he was, he was on one 
occasion appointed to command a boat, sent out to 



PHIPPS. 



61 



explore a passage into the open water. It was the 
means of saving another boat from imminent danger. 
One of the officers had wounded a walrus. As no othev 
animal has so human-like an expression of countenance, 
so also is there no one that seems to possess more of 
the passions of humanity. The wounded animal dived 
immediately, and brought up a number of its compan- 
ions ; and they all joined in an attack on the boat. 
They wrested an oar from one of the men, and it was 
with the utmost difficulty that the crew could prevent 
them from staving or upsetting her, till Nelson came 
up : and the walruses, finding their enemies thus rein- 
forced, dispersed. Young Nelson exposed himself in a 
most daring manner. 

For a time Captain Phipps was so surrounded by ice, 




that he made preparations to abandon his ships. On the 
Yth of August the men began to haul the boats over 
6 



62 COOK. — MACKENZIE. 

the ice. But on the 9th the ships were moved a little 
through some small openings ; and in the course of the 
day they got past the boats, and took them on board 
again. On the morrow a favorable wind sprang up ; all 
sail was set, and, after forcing their way through much 
heavy ice, the ships cleared it, and gained the open sea. 
The season was now so far advanced that nothing more 
could be attempted, and the expedition returned to 
England. 

In 17*76 Cook sailed on the fatal expedition which cost 
England her famous navigator, with instructions to at- 
tempt the passage of the Icy Sea from Behring's Strait 
to Baffin's Bay. The clause of the act above referred 
to, wherein Hudson's Strait was exclusively specified, 
was altered to include '' any northern passage'' for ships ; 
and five thousand pounds was further voted to any one 
who should get within one degree of the pole. Cook, 
with all his perseverance, could not penetrate beyond Icy 
Cape, latitude 10° 45', where he found the ice stretch- 
ing in a compact mass across to the opposite continent, 
which he also visited, sailing as far as Cape North, on 
the coast of Asia. It would appear that expectations 
prevailed of the enterprising mariner's success ; for a 
vessel was sent to Baffin's Bay to wait for him, in 
177*7, in charge of Lieutenant Pickersgill. 

One other journey within this century remains to be 
noticed — that by Mackenzie, under sanction of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, with objects similar to those of 
Hearne. In 1789 he left Fort Chipewyan, crossed Slave 
Lake, and descended the Mackenzie Eiver, a stream of 
much greater magnitude than the Coppermine, to an 
island where the tide rose and fell. But, as in the case 
of his predecessor, we have no certainty that he reached 
the ocean. Rivers, however, play an important part in 
Arctic discovery ; and it was something gained to know 



ROSS AND PARRY. 63 

that the sea could be reached by their means. We may 
hiere observe, once for all, that these land expeditions, 
whose prime object has been to determine the northern 
coast-line of America, are not to be confounded with 
the attempts to discover the north-west passage. 

The result of these discouragements was a cessation 
of naval researches, which continued for many years ; 
but at length a change took place, as sudden and inex- 
plicable as the accumulation of ice from centuries before 
which cut off the Danish colonies in Greenland from 
communication with the mother country. In ISIG-IT, 
the Greenland whalers reported the sea to be clearer 
of ice than at any former time within their knowledge. 
This fact engaged the attention of the British Admiralty ; 
and the Council of the Royal Society were consulted as 
to the prospects of renewed operations in the Arctic 
regions. Their reply was favorable ; and in 1818 two 
expeditions were fitted out — the one to discover the 
north-west passage, the other to reach the pole. Cap- 
tain (soon Sir John) Ross and Lieut, (soon Sir Ed- 
ward) Parry, in the vessels Isabella and Alexander, 
were intrusted with the former of these objects. They 
were especially charged to examine the great openings 
described by BafSn as existing at the head of the vast 
bay which ^he so diligently explored ; and, in carrying 
out these instructions, the commanders found full reason 
to applaud the care and perseverance of the able navi- 
gator, who had preceded them by two hundred years.- 
It must be remembered that we are now treating of a 
period when science put forward its imperative claims, 
and when, as at present, something more was required 
than a meagre chart of a previously-unexplored coast, 
and graphic accounts of new countries and their inhab- 
itants. Astronomy, geology, meteorology, magnetism, 
natural history, were all clamorous for new facts, or for 



64 ROSS AND PARRY. 

satisfactory tests of those already known ; and not only 
men of science, but the public at large, looked with deep 
interest to the results. 

The open state of the sea greatly facilitated the pur- 
poses of the expedition. On the 18th of April the navi- 
gators sailed down the Thames, and by the end of the 
month were off the Shetland Islands. On the-2'7th of 
May they came in view of Cape Farewell, round which, 
as usual, were floating numerous and lofty icebergs of 
the most varied forms and tints. On the 14th of June 
they reached the Whale Islands, where they were 
informed by the governor of the Danish settlement that 
the past winter had been uncommonly severe ; that the 
neighboring bays and straits had been all frozen two 
months earlier than usual ; and that some of the channels 
northward of his station were still inaccessible, owing 
to the ice. On the 1*7 th of June, in the neighborhood 
of Waygat Island, an impenetrable barrier obliged the 
discoverers to stop their course, making themselves 
fast to an iceberg, and having forty-five whale-ships in 
company. Observations made ashore proved this island 
to be misplaced on the maps by no less than five 
degrees of longitude. On the Tth of August, in the 
same latitude, a heavy gale sprang up, which, driving 
the ice against the vessels, made a display of its terrible 
power. Providentially, when instant destruction was 
expected, the mass receded, and the ships, owing to the 
extraordinary strength of their construction, escaped 
without material injury. 

Proceeding along a high mountainous coast, the 
expedition came to a tribe of Esquimaux, who, of all 
human beings, seemed to live in a state of the deepest 
seclusion. They had never before seen men belonging 
to the civilized world, or to a race different from their 
own. The first party whom the navigators approached 



ROSS AND PARRY. 65 

showed every sign of alarm, dreading, as was after- 
wards understood, a fatal influence from the mere touch 
of beings whom they regarded as members of an un- 
known species. They soon, however, acquired greater 
confidence, and gave the usual proof of it by making 
free with whatever they could carry away. Following 
the general usage, they have sledges drawn by large and 
powerful teams of dogs ; their chase is chiefly confined to 
hares, foxes of various colors, the seal, and the narwal. 
They rejected with horror the proffered luxuries of bis- 
cuit, sweetmeats, or spirits ; train-oil, as it streamed 
from various species of fish, alone gratified their palate. 
Captain Ross, swayed by national impressions, gave to 
this district the name of the Arctic Highlands. 

In the northern part of this coast the navigators ob- 
served a remarkable phenomenon — a range of cliff's, 
the snowy covering of which had exchanged its native 
white for a tint of deep crimson. The latest observa- 
tions on this red snow have established the vegetable 
origin of the color. 

Having now passed Cape Dudley Digges, the com- 
modore found himself among those spacious sounds 
which Baffin had named, but so imperfectly described. 
They all appeared to him, however, to be either bays 
enclosed by land, or obstructed by impenetrable barriers 
of ice. He sailed past Wolstenholme and Whale 
Sounds very quickly, without approaching even their 
entrance, concluding them to be blocked up with ice, 
and to afford no hope of a passage. As these openings 
stretched towards the north, it must be admitted that 
they could not, in this high latitude, be considered very 
favorable as to the object he had in view. He came 
next to Sir Thomas Smith's Sound, which Baffin de- 
scribed as the most spacious in the whole circuit of 
these coasts. This was regarded with greater attention ; 
6* 



Qe> ROSS AND PARRY. 

but Captain Ross satisfied himself that he had distinctly 
seen it, at the distance of eighteen leagues, completely 
enclosed by land. He soon arrived at an extensive 
bay, which had hitherto been unobserved ; afterwards 
to that which Baffin called Alderman Jones's Sound ; 
but in respect to both, the ice at their entrance, and the 
apparent boundary of high land in the interior, led, as 
in the other instances, to an unfavorable conclusion. 

The season was now somewhat advanced, the end of 
August approached, the sun set after an uninterrupted 
day of two months and a half, and a thick fog rendered 
the lengthening nights more gloomy. The land, seen 
at some distance, consisted of very high and steep hills, 
presenting, however, some spots fit for human habita- 
tion. An opening forty-five miles wide, to the south- 
ward of a promontory which was named Cape Charlotte, 
was decided against on the usual grounds. On the 30th 
of August the expedition came to a most magnificent 
inlet, bordered by lofty mountains of peculiar grandeur, 
while the water, being clear, and free from ice, pre- 
sented so tempting an appearance, that it was impossi- 
ble to refrain from entering. This channel, which soon 
proved to be Lancaster Sound, was ascended for thirty 
miles, during which run officers and men crowded the 
topmast, filled with enthusiastic hope, and judging that 
it afforded a much fairer prospect of success than any 
of those so hastily passed. Captain Ross, however, 
soon thought that he discovered a high ridge stretching 
directly across the inlet ; and though a great part of it 
was deeply involved in mist, a passage in this direction 
was by him judged to be hopeless. The sea being 
open, however, the commander proceeded ; but about 
twelve o'clock, Mr. Beverley, the assistant-surgeon, 
came down from the crow's nest, and stated that he had 
seen the land extending very nearly across the entire 



BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 67 

bay. Hereupon, it is said, all hopes, were renounced, 
even by the most sanguine, and Captain Koss sailed on- 
ward merely for the purpose of making some magneti- 
cal observations. 

At three o'clock, the sky having cleared, the com- 
mander himself went on deck, when he states that he 
distinctly saw across the bottom of the bay a chain of 
mountains, continuous, and connected with those which 
formed its opposite shores. The weather then becom- 
ing unsettled, he made the signal to steer the vessels 
out of Lancaster Sound. 

On regaining the entrance of this great channel. Cap- 
tain Ross continued to steer southward along the west- 
ern shore, without seeing any entrance which afforded 
equal promise. Cumberland Strait alone was similar in 
magnitude ; but, as it could lead only into the higher 
latitudes of Hudson's Bay, it afforded little chance of a 
passage into the Arctic Sea. After surveying, there- 
fore, some of these shores, he returned home early in 
October. The captain arrived in England under the 
most dectded conviction that Baffin's observations had 
been perfectly correct, and that Lancaster Sound was a 
bay, affording no entrance into any western sea. If 
even any strait existed between the mountains, it must, 
he conceived, be forever innavigable, on account of the 
ice with which it is filled. 

The Dorothea and Trent, commanded by Captain 
Buchan and Lieut, (afterwards Sir John) Franklin, com- 
prised the expedition destined for the pole. Franklin, 
in regard to whose fate so much public interest was in 
subsequent years excited, entered the navy in early life 
as midshipman of the Porpoise, one of the ships em- 
ployed by Captain Flinders on the survey of the coasts 
of Australia, and was wrecked in her. Next in the 
Polyphemus, as midshipman and master's mate, from 



68 BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 

1801 to 1808, he was in the fleet with Nelson at the 
battle of Copenhagen. He was next appointed acting- 
lieutenant in the Bedford ; and was lieutenant of the 
Bellerophon in the battle of Trafalgar, in 1805, and also 
in the Bedford in the attack on New Orleans, in 1815, 
where he commanded in the boats, was wounded, gazet- 
ted, and highly spoken of. He was considered a good 
nautical surveyor, well versed in the use of instruments, 
and a thorough seaman. 

Captain Beechey, to whom we are indebted for an 
interesting account of the present voyage, observes : 
'' The peculiarity of the proposed route afforded oppor- 
tunities of making some useful experiments on the ellip- 
tical figure of the earth ; on magnetic phenomena ; on 
the refraction of the atmosphere in high latitudes in 
ordinary circumstances, and over extensive masses of 
ice ; and on the temperature and specific gravity of the 
sea at the surface, and at various depths ; and on mete- 
orological and other interesting phenomena.'^ The 
vessels sailed in April, 1818 ; Magdalena Bay, in Spitz- 
bergen, having been appointed as a place of rendezvous, 
in case of separation. 

Though this expedition, like that of Ross, was a fail- 
ure in its main object, yet, unlike the other, it was not 
owing to any want of exertion, zeal, or intelligence, in 
the two commanders or officers ; on the contrary, the 
two ships were supplied with some of those who, in 
future voyages, so greatly distinguished themselves as 
to obtain the highest steps of promotion, and to receive 
honorary rewards. The instructions directed that they 
were to make the best of their way into the Spitzbergen 
seas, where they should endeavor to pass to the north- 
ward, between Spitzbergen and Greenland, without 
stopping on either of their coasts, and use their best 
endeavors to reach the North Pole ; with a suggestion. 



BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 69 

that where the sea is deepest and least connected with 
the land, it will be found most clear of ice. 

On the 18th of May the ships encountered a severe 
gale, and under even storm staysails were buried gun- 
wale deep in the waves. On the 24th they sighted 
Cherie Island, situated in lat. H° 33' N., and long. 11° 
40' E., formerly so noted for its fishery, being much 
frequented by walruses. For many years the Mus- 
covy Company carried on a lucrative trade by sending 
ships to the island for oil ; as many as a thousand ani- 
mals being often captured by the crew of a single ship 
in the course of six or seven hours. 

The discovery ships passed slowly through the small 
floes and huge masses of ice which floated by in succes- 
sion. The progress through such a labyrinth of frozen 
masses was a most interesting sight. The officers and 
crew did not tire of watching the scene. Captain 
Beechey thus describes the general impression created : 
" Very few of us had ever seen the sun at midnight ; and 
this night happening to be particularly clear, his broad 
red disc, curiously distorted by refraction, and sweep- 
ing majestically along the northern horizon, was an ob- 
ject of imposing grandeur, which riveted to the deck 
some of our crew, who would perhaps have beheld with 
indifference the less imposing effect of the icebergs. 
The rays were too oblique to illuminate more than the 
inequalities of the floes, and, falling thus partially on 
the grotesque shapes, either really assumed by the ice 
or distorted by the unequal refraction of the atmos- 
phere, so betrayed the imagination that it required no 
great exertion of fancy to trace in various directions 
architectural edifices, grottos, and caves, here and there, 
glittering as if with precious metals.'^ 

At Cherie Island the walruses were found very nu- 
merous. Of the habits and character of the walrus 



70 BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 

Lieut. Beechey gives, after frequent intercourse with 
them, a very interesting account. Their affection for 
their young, and their unflinching courage in defending 
them, are remarkable ; not more so their compassionate 
conduct toward a wounded companion, whom they will 
never leave till carried off to a place of safety ; and 
even the young ones on such occasions will turn fiercely 
against the boats of the pursuers. A single instance 
will suffice to show the care and affection bestowed on 
their young. 

" We were greatly amused by the singular and affec- 
tionate conduct of a walrus towards its young. In the 
vast sheet of ice that surrounded the ships there were 
occasionally many pools ; and, when the weather was 
clear and warm, animals of various kinds would fre- 
quently rise and sport about in them, or crawl from 
thence upon the ice to bask in the warmth of the sun. 
A walrus rose in one of these pools close to the ship, 
and, finding everything quiet, dived down and brought 
up its young, which it held by its breast by pressing it 
with its flipper. In this manner it moved about the pool, 
keeping in an erect posture, and always directing the 
face of the young toward the vessel. On the slightest 
movement on board, the mother released her flipper and 
pushed the young one under water ; but, when everj^- 
thing was again quiet, brought it up as before, and for 
a length of time continued to play about in the pool, to 
the great amusement of the seamen, who gave her credit 
for abilities in tuition which, though possessed of con- 
siderable sagacity, she hardly merited.^' 

On one occasion, some of the crew of the Trent, having 
wounded a walrus, took to their boat, when they were 
assailed by a large number of walruses. These animals 
rose, snorting with rage, and rushed at the boat ; and 
it was with the utmost difficulty they were prevented 



BUCHAJ^ AND FRANKLIN. 



71 



from upsetting or staving it. They would place their 
tusks on the gunwale, or rush at it with their heads. 
The herd was so numerous, and their attacks so inces- 
sant, that there was not time to load a musket. The 
purser fortunately had his gun loaded, and the men now 
being nearly exhausted with chopping and sticking at 
their assailants, he snatched it up, and, thrusting the 
muzzle down the throat of a large and formidable wal- 
rus, who seemed to be the leader of the herd, fired into 
his bowels. The wound proved mortal, and the animal 




ATTACK BY WALRUSES. 



fell back among his companions, who immediately 
desisted from the attack, assembled round him, and in a 
moment quitted the boat, swimming away as hard as 
they could with their leader, whom they actually bore up 
with their tusks, and assiduously preserved from sinking. 
Many similar acts of compassion, on the part of these 
animals towards their wounded companions, were 
observed. On one occasion, when several walruses 



72 BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 

were attacked upon a beach, near Magdalena Bay, the 
first discharge of muskets drove all those who could 
crawl into the sea ; but, immediately upon their panic 
subsiding, they returned to the shore and dragged their 
wounded companions into the water, either by main 
force, or by rolling them over with their tusks. 

On the 28th of May, the weather being foggy and 
severe, with heavy falls of snow, the ships separated, 
and the Trent stood to the northward toward Magdalena 
Bay, the place of rendezvous, along the edge of the 
main body of ice : they met here, and, seeing it impos- 
sible to penetrate the marginal line of the ice, and the 
season being very early, the commander determined on 
passing a few days in that bay, in which they anchored 
on the 3d of June. The ice was in the cove and upper 
part of the harbor, but was in a rapidly decaying state, 
and, on revisiting their anchorage here in the beginning 
of August, it had entirely disappeared. Magdalena Bay 
is rendered conspicuous by four glaciers, the smallest 
two hundred feet above the sea, on the slope of a moun- 
tain. It is- called the Hanging Iceberg, and seems, so 
Beechey says, as if a very slight matter would detach 
it from the mountain, and precipitate it into the sea. 
The largest of the four extends two or three miles in- 
land : owing to the great rents in the surface, it has 
been named the Wagon-way, from the resemblance of 
the fissures to ruts made by wheels. Several glaciers 
similar to those were observed near Bane's Gut, the 
largest about ten thousand feet in length by two or three 
hundred feet in perpendicular height. In the vicinity of 
these icebergs a strict observance of silence is neces- 
sary ; the explosion of a gun scarcely ever fails to bring 
down one of these masses. Mr. Beechey says that on 
two occasions they witnessed avalanches on the most 
magnificent scale. 



BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 73 

'' The first was occasioned by the discharge of a mus- 
ket at about half a mile's distance from the glacier. 
Immediately after the report of the gun, a noise resem- 
bling thunder was heard in the direction of the iceberg 
(glacier), and in a few seconds more an immense piece 
broke away, and fell headlong into the sea. The crew 
of the launch, supposing themselves beyond the reach of 
its influence, quietly looked upon the scene, when pres- 
ently a sea arose and rolled toward the shore with such 
rapidity, that the crew had not time to take any precau- 
tions, and the boat was in consequence washed upon 
the beach, and completely filled by the succeeding 
wave. As soon as their astonishment had subsided, 
they examined the boat, and found her so badly stove 
that it became necessary to repair her in order to return 
to the ship. They had also the curiosity to measure 
the distance the boat had been carried by the wave, and 
found it to be ninety-six feet.'' 

In viewing the same glacier from a boat at a distance, 
a second avalanche took place, which aiforded them the 
gratification of witnessing the creation, as it were, of a 
sea iceberg ; an opportunity which has occurred to few, 
though it is generally understood that such monsters 
can only be generated on shore. 

" This occurred on a remarkably fine day, when the 
quietness of the bay was first interrupted by the noise 
of the falling body. Lieutenant Franklin and myself 
had approached one of these stupendous walls of ice, 
and were endeavoring to search into the innermost recess 
of a deep cavern that was near the foot of the glacier, 
when we heard a report as if of a cannon, and, turning 
to the quarter whence it proceeded, we perceived an 
immense piece of the front of the berg sliding down from 
the height of two hundred feet at least into the sea, and 
dispersing the water in every direction, accompanied by 
1 



74 BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 

a loud, grinding noise, and followed by a quantity of 
water, which, being previously lodged in the fissures, 
now made its escape in numberless small cataracts over 
the front of the glacier/' 

After describiug the disturbance occasioned by the 
plunge of this enormous fragment, and the rollers which 
swept over the surface of the bay, and obliged the 
Dorothea, then careening at the distance of four miles, 
to aright, by releasing the tackles, he thus proceeds : 

" The piece that had been disengaged at first wholly 
disappeared under water, and nothing was seen but a 
violent boiling of the sea, and a shooting up of clouds 
of spray, like that which occurs at the foot of a great 
cataract. After a short time it reappeared, raising its 
head full a hundred feet above the surface, with water 
pouring down from all parts of it ; and then, laboring as 
if doubtful which way it should fall, it rolled over, and, 
after rocking about some minutes, at length became 
settled. We now approached it, and found it nearly a 
quarter of a mile in circumference, and sixty feet out of 
the water. Knowing its specific gravity, and making a 
fair allowance for its inequalities, we computed its 
weight at 421,660 tons. A stream of salt water was 
still pouring down its sides, and there was a continual 
cracking noise, as loud as that of a cart-whip, occa- 
sioned, I suppose, by the escape of fixed (confined) 
air.'' 

Mr. Beechey confirms what has frequently been found 
and noticed — the mildness of the temperature on the 
western coast of Spitzbergen, there being little or no 
sensation of cold, though the thermometer might be only 
a few degrees above the freezing point. The brilliant 
and lively effect of a clear day, when the sun shines 
forth, with a pure sky, whose azure hue is so intense as 
to find no parallel even in the boasted Italian sky, affords, 



BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 75 

in Mr. Beechey's opinion, a full compensation for the 
cloudy and misty weather, when the hills are clothed 
with new-fallen snow, and all appears dreary and deso- 
late. The radiation of the sun, he observes, in some 
sheltered situations, is so powerful, during two hours on 
either side of noon, that they frequently observed the 
thermometer upon the ice in the offing at 58°, 62°, 6t° ; 
and <once at midnight it rose to '73°, although in the 
shade at the same time it was only 36°. Hence are 
found varieties of Alpine plants, grasses, and lichens, 
such as in the more southern aspects flourish in great 
luxuriance ; they are here found ascending to a consid- 
erable height, " so that," says Beechey, '' we have fre- 
quently seen the reindeer browsing at an elevation of 
fifteen hundred feet." 

On account of the mildness of the temperature, the 
shores of Spitzbergen are frequented by multitudes of 
animals of various descriptions. " From an early hour 
in the morning until the period of rest returned, the 
shores around us reverberated with the merry cry of the 
little auk, willocks, divers, cormorants, gulls, and other 
aquatic birds ; and, wherever we went, groups of wal- 
ruses, basking in the sun, mingled their playful roar 
with the husky bark of the seal." The little auks or 
rotges (the Alca alle) are stated to be so numerous, that 
'' we have frequently seen an uninterrupted line of them 
extending full half-way over the bay, or to a distance 
of more than three miles, and so close together that 
thirty have fallen at one shot. This living column 
might be about six yards broad and as many deep ; so 
that, allowing sixteen birds to a cubic yard,- there would 
be four millions of these creatures on the wing at one 
time." This number, he adds, appears very large ; 
yet, when it is told that the little rotges rise in such 
multitudes as to darken the air, and that their chorus is 



76 BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 

distinctly audible at a distance of four miles, the estimate 
will not appear to be exaggerated. 

At Vogel Sang and Cloven Cliff, between which is 
Fair Haven, wherein the ships anchored, the surround- 
ing islands are described as clothed with lichens and 
other rich pasturage for reindeer, which creatures are 
here so abundant (upon Yogel Sang in particular), that 
this island alone supplied the expedition with forty car- 
casses in high condition, the fat on the loins being from 
four to six inches thick, and a carcass prepared for 
dressing weighing two hundred and eighty-five pounds. 
These fine creatures showed evident marks of affection 
for each other. " They were at this time in pairs, and 
when one was shot the other would hang over it, and 
occasionally lick it, apparently bemoaning its fate ; and, 
if not immediately killed, would stand three or four 
shots rather than desert its fallen companion. '^ ''This 
compassionate conduct,'' continues Beechey, "it is 
needless to say, doubled our chance of success, though 
I must confess it was obtained in violation of our better 
feelings." These animals are said to take to the water 
freely, and swim from one island to another. The boats 
of the Trent took four, which they wished to retain 
alive ; but they were so wild that they broke their 
slender limbs, and inflicted other serious wounds, so 
that it became necessary to put an end to their suffer- 
ings by killing them. 

At one of the islets near Yogel Sang were also the 
King Eider-ducks, in such numbers that it was impossi- 
ble, almost, to walk without treading on their nests, 
which they defended with determined resolution. If 
driven off by foxes, or other large animals, they hastily 
draw the down of the nest over the eggs, and glue it 
with a yellow fluid, not only to preserve the warmth of 
the eggs, but that, being of so offensive a nature, the 



BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 77 

foxes would not toucli the eggs tainted with it. Foxes 
and bears are everywhere found on the shore and on 
the ice ; and the sea about Spitzbergen is as much alive 
as the land, from the multitude of burgomasters, stront- 
jaggers, malmouks, kittiwakes, and the rest of the gull 
tribe, while the amphibious animals and the fish enliven 
both the ice and the water, from the huge whale to the 
minute clio on which it feeds, swallowing perhaps a 
million at a mouthful. In this respect of animal life, 
the Arctic regions of the globe essentially differ from 
those within the Antarctic Circle, where all appears to 
be stillness, silence, and solitude. 

On the 1th of June the ships left Magdalena Bay, and 
were hampered with fragments of ice, usually called 
brash-ice, which, as they proceeded, became thicker and 
more solid, and, indeed, impenetrable ; but a breeze 
opened and dispersed it, and carried the ships into clear 
water. In going westerly they fell in with several 
whale-ships, by which they learned that the ice in that 
quarter was quite compact, and that fifteen vessels were 
beset in it. Buchan, therefore, stood to the northward. 
They passed Cloven Cliff, — a remarkable isolated rock, 
which marks the north-western boundary of Spitzbergen, 
— and also Ked Bay, when they were stopped by the 
ice closing the channel between it and the shore, and 
became firmly fixed. By great exertions, however, 
they got into tbo floe of ice, where they remained thir- 
teen days, whei the field began to separate, and to set 
to the southward, at the rate of three miles an hour, 
and the ships got into an open sea, where, however, 
they were not long permitted to remain, and took 
shelter in Fair Haven. 

Finding, from the view afforded by the hills, that the 
ice was driving to the northward, they again put to sea 
on the 6th of July, and sailed as far as 80° 15' N., where 



78 BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 

the same impenetrable barrier obstructed their further 
progress. On the following day, however, so rapid 
had been the motion of the ice during the night, that 
channels of water were observed in every quarter, and 
the wind was favorable for proceeding along one of the 
open channels. Captain Buchan lost not a moment in 
pushing his ship into one of these openings, spreading 
every sail his masts would bear, and was cheerfully 
followed by his enterprising consort, to the great joy 
of all on board. In the evening, however, the channels 
began to close again, and the vessels were soon beset 
and pressed close by the packed ice. This was the end 
of their voyage northward, and the latitude gained 
was 80° 34' N. In vain they labored two days in drag- 
ging the vessels with ropes and ice-anchors ; for, though 
they had left the ice behind them, the current had car- 
ried them back to the southward three miles, and it 
was clear that all attempts to get one mile further to 
the northward would be vain. 

Captain Buchan being now satisfied that he had given 
the ice a fair trial in the vicinity of Spitzbergen, resolved 
on standing over toward the coast of Greenland. Hav- 
ing succeeded in getting the ships to the edge of the 
pack, and sailing along it, a violent gale of wind came 
on so suddenly that they were at once reduced to storm 
staysails. The ice was setting fast upon them, and the 
Dorothea being nearest to it, in order to escape imme- 
diate shipwreck, it was deemed necessary to take refuge 
among it. The Trent followed her example, and dashed 
into the " unbroken line of furious breakers, in which 
immense pieces of ice were heaving and subsiding with 
the waves, and dashing together with a violence which 
nothing, apparently, but a solid body, could withstand, 
occasioning such a noise that it was with the greatest 
difficulty we could make our orders heard by the crew." 



BUCHAN AND FRANKLIN. 79 

'' No language, '^ he says, " I am convinced, can convey 
an adequate idea of the terrific grandeur of the effect 
now produced by the collision of the ice and the tem- 
pestuous ocean.'' 

But when the moment arrived that the strength of 
the little bark was to be placed in competition with that 
of the great icy continent, and doubts might reasonably 
have arisen of her surviving the unequal conflict, the 
crew preserved the greatest calmness and resolution. 

Captain Beechey says : 

''If ever the fortitude of seamen was fairly tried, it 
was assuredly not less so on this occasion ; and I will 
not conceal the pride I felt in witnessing the bold and 
decisive tone in which the orders were issued by the 
commander of our little vessel (Franklin), and the 
promptitude and steadiness with which they were exe- 
cuted by the crew. Each person instinctively secured 
his own hold, and, with his eyes fixed upon the masts, 
awaited in breathless anxiety the moment of concussion. 
It soon arrived ; the brig, cutting her way through the 
light ice, came in violent contact with the main body. 
In an instant we all lost our footing, the masts bent 
with the impetus, and the cracking timbers from below 
bespoke a pressure which was calculated to awaken our 
serious apprehensions." 

Captain Beechey proceeds to give a vivid and graphic 
account of the state of the ship, accompanied by a spirited 
and well-executed print, descriptive of her situation. 
''Her motion,'' he says, "was so great, that the ship's 
bell, which in the heaviest gale of wind had never struck 
of itself, now tolled so continually that it was ordered 
to be muffled for the purpose of escaping the unpleasant 
association it was calculated to produce." After a few 
hours the gale ceased, and the pack broke up sufficiently 
to release the ships, which were so disabled that the 



80 



BUCHAN AND FR^mKLIN. 



Dorothea was in a foundering condition. They made 
the best of their way to Fair Haven in a sinking state, 
where they repaired their damages as well as they 
could ; it was obvious, however, there was an end to 
any further attempt as regarded the main object of the 
expedition. The Trent being the less damaged of the 
two, Lieutenant Franklin requested that he might be 
allowed to proceed alone in the execution of the service. 
This could not be acceded to, as, in the event which 
had occurred. Captain Buchan was directed by his in- 
structions to take command of the Trent, provided her 
consort was rendered unserviceable ; had he done so, 
the Dorothea, unaccompanied in her way home, might 
have risked the lives of her crew in a ship so shattered 
and unsafe. It was therefore decided that both should 
return home ; and on the 30th of August they put to 
sea, and on the 22d of October arrived at Deptford. 




SITUATION OP THE TRENT. 



CHAPTER IV. 

parry's first voyage. — ICEBERGS. — PASSAGE THROUGH LANCASTER 
SOUKD. PRINCE REGENt'S INLET. WELLINGTON CHANNEL. — MEL- 
VILLE ISLAND. WINTER QUARTERS. — SCURVY. SNOW BLINBNESS. 

THEATRICALS. BREAKING UP OF THE ICE. RETURN OF THE EX- 
PEDITION. 

Much dissatisfaction was felt in England at the result 
of Ross's expedition, described in the last chapter. The 
grounds, in particular, on which Lancaster Sound, an 
opening so spacious, and in a position so favorable in 
respect to western discovery, had been so abruptly 
quitted, appeared inadmissible. The '' Croker Moun- 
tains, '^ which had barred the progress of Sir John 
Ross, were affirmed by some who had borne part in the 
abortive voyage to be an ocular illusion. This opin- 
ion was very de<;idedly espoused by Lieut. Parry, the 
second in command. It was determined, therefore, that 
a fresh expedition should be equipped and intrusted to 
him, that he might fulfil, if possible, his own sanguine 
hopes, and those of the government. 

He was furnished with the Hecla, of 3Y5 tons, and a 
crew of fifty-eight men ; and with the Griper gun-brig, 
of 180 tons, and thirtj^-six men, commanded by Lieut. 
Liddon. These ships were made as strong as possible 
for the navigation of the Arctic seas ; and were stored 
with ample provisions for two years, a copious supply 
of anti-scorbutics, and everything which could enable 



82 PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

the crews to endure the most extreme rigors of a 'polar 
winter. 

Lieut. Parry, destined to outstrip all his predecessors 
in the career of northern discovery, weighed anchor at 
the Nore on the 11th May, 1819, and on the 20th 
rounded the remotest point of the Orkneys. He endeav- 
ored to cross the Atlantic about the parallel of 58°, and, 
though impeded during the first fortnight of June by a 
course of unfavorable weather, obtained, on the 15th, 
from the distance apparently of not less than forty 
leagues, a view of the lofty cliffs composing Cape Fare- 
well. On the 18th the ships first fell in with icebergs, 
the air being also filled with petrels, kittiwakes, terns, 
and other winged inhabitants of the northern sky. He 
now made an effort to push north and west, through the 
icy masses, in the direction of Lancaster Sound ; but 
these suddenly closed upon him ; and on the 25th both 
vessels were so immovably beset, that no power could 
turn their heads a single point of the compass. They 
remained thus fixed, but safe, when, on the morning of 
the second day, a heavy roll of the sea loosened the 
ice, and drove it against them with such violence, that 
•only their very strong construction saved them from 
severe injury. The discoverers, therefore, were fain to 
ex:tricate themselves as soon as possible ; and, resign- 
ing the idea of reaching Lancaster Sound by the most 
direct course, resolved to steer northward along the 
border of this great icy field till ihej should find open 
water. In this progress they verified the observation 
of Davis, that in the narrowest part of the great sea, 
misnamed his Strait, the shores on each side could be 
seen at the same moment. Thus they proceeded till 
they reached the Women's Islands and Hope Sanderson, 
in about latitude '73°. As every step was now likely to 
carry them further from their destination. Parry deter- 



PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 83 

mined upon a desperate push to the westward. Favored 
with a moderate breeze, the ships were run into the 
detached pieces and floes of ice, through which 4hey 
were heaved with hawsers ; but, the obstacles becoming, 
always more insuperable, they were at length completely 
beset, and a heavy fog coming on, made them little able 
to take advantage of any favorable change. Yet, in the 
course of a week, though repeatedly and sometimes 
dangerously surrounded, they warped their way "from 
lane to lane of open water, till only one lengthened floe 
separated them from an open sea. By laboriously saw- 
ing through this obstruction, they finally penetrated the 
great barrier, and saw the shore, clear of ice, extending 
before them. 

The navigators now bore directly for Lancaster Sound, 
and on the 30th July found themselves at its entrance. 
They felt an extraordinary emotion as ihej recognized 
this magnificent channel, with the lofty cliff's by which it 
was guarded, aware that a very short time would decide 
the fate of their grand undertaking. They were tanta- 
lized, however, by a fresh breeze coming directly down 
the sound, which did not suffer them to make more than 
a very slow progress. Still, there was no appearance 
of obstruction either from ice or land, and even the heavy 
swell which they had to encounter, driving the water 
repeatedly in at the stern windows, was hailed as an 
indication of open sea to the westward. 

The Hecla left the Griper behind, but still without 
making any great way herself, till the 3d August, when 
an easterly breeze sprang up, carrying both vessels 
rapidly forward. A crowd of sail was set, and they pro- 
ceeded triumphantly in their course. The minds of all 
were filled with anxious hope and suspense. The mast- 
heads were crowded with ofiScers and men, and the suc- 
cessive reports brought down from the highest pinnacle 



84 PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

called the crow's nest, were eagerly listened to on 
deck. Their path was still unobstructed. They passed 
various headlands, with several wide openings towards 
the north and south, to which they hastily gave the 
names of Croker Bay, Navy Board Inlet, and similar 
designations ; but these it was not their present object 
to explore. The wind, freshening more and more, car- 
ried them happily forward, till at midnight they found 
themselves in longitude 83° 12', nearly a hundred and 
fifty miles from the mouth of the sound, which still 
retained a breadth of fifty miles. The success of the 
expedition, they fondly hoped, was now, to a great 
extent, decided. 

The Ilecla at this time slackened her course, to allow 
her companion to come up, which she did in longitude 
85°. They proceeded together to longitude 86° 30', and 
found two other inlets, which they named Burnet and 
Stratton ; then a bold cape, named Fellfoot, forming, 
apparently, the termination of this long line of coast. 
The lengthened swell, which still rolled in from the 
north and west, with the oceanic color of the waters, 
inspired the flattering persuasion that they had already 
passed the region of straits and inlets, and were now 
wafted along the wide expanse of the polar basin. 
Nothing, in short, it was hoped, would henceforth 
obstruct their progress to Icy Cape, the western bound- 
ary of America. An alarm of land was given, but it 
proved to arise only from an island of no great extent. 
However, more land was soon discovered, beyond Cape 
Fellfoot, which was ascertained to be the entrance to a 
noble recess, extending on their right, which they 
named Maxwell Bay. An uninterrupted range of sea 
still stretched out before them, though they were some- 
what discomposed by seeing, on the south, a line of 



PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 85 

continuous ice ; but it left an open passage, and they 
hoped to find it merely a detached stream. 

A little space onwards, however, they discovered, 
with deep dismay, that this ice was joined to a com- 
pact and impenetrable body of floes, which completely 
crossed the channel, and joined the western point of 
Maxwell Bay. It behoved them, therefore, immedi- 
ately to draw back, to avoid being embayed in the 
ice, along the edges of which a violent surf was then 
beating. The officers began to amuse themselves with 
fruitless attempts to catch white whales, when the 
weather cleared, and they saw, to the south, an open 
sea, with a dark water-sky. Parry, hoping that this 
might lead to an unencumbered passage in a lower 
latitude, steered in this direction, and found himself at 
the mouth of a great inlet, ten leagues broad, with no 
visible termination ; and to the two capes at its en- 
trance he gave the names of Clarence and Seppings. 

The mariners, finding the western shore of this inlet 
greatly obstructed with ice, moved across to the east- 
ern, where they entered a broad and open channel. 
The coast was the most dreary and desolate they had 
ever beheld, even in the Arctic world, presenting scarcely 
a semblance either of animal or vegetable life. Naviga- 
tion was rendered more arduous, irom the entire irregu- 
larity of the compass, now evidently approaching to the 
magnetic pole, and showing . an excess of variation 
which they vainly attempted to measure, so that the 
binnacles were laid aside as useless lumber. 

They sailed a hundred and twenty miles up this inlet, 
and its augmenting width inspired them with correspond- 
ing hopes ; when, with extreme consternation, they 
suddenly perceived the ice to diverge from its parallel 
course, running close in with a point of land which 
appeared to form the southern extremity of the eastern 



86 PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

shore. To this foreland they gave the name of Cape 
Kater. The western horizon also appeared covered 
with heavy and extensive floes, a bright and dazzling 
ice-blink extending from right to left. The name of the 
Prince Regent was given to this spacious inlet, which 
Parry strongly suspected must have a communication 
with Hudson's Bay. He now determined to return to 
the old station, and watch the opportunity when the 
relenting ice would allow the ships to proceed west- 
ward. That point was reached, not without some diffi- 
culty, amid ice and fog. 

At Prince Leopold's Islands, on the 15th, the barrier 
was as impenetrable as ever, with a bright blink ; and 
from the top of a high hill there was no water to be 
seen ; luckily, also, there was no land. On the 18th, 
on getting once more close to the northern shore, the 
navigators began to make a little way, and some showers 
of rain and snow, accompanied with heavy wind, pro- 
duced such an effect, that on the 21st the whole ice had 
disappeared, and they could scarcely believe it to be 
the same sea which had just before been covered with 
floes upon floes, as far as the eye could reach. 

Parry now crowded all sail to the westward, and, 
though detained by want of wind, he passed Radstock 
Bay, Capes Hurd and Hotham, and Beechey Island ; 
after which he discovered a fine and broad inlet leading 
to the north, which he called Wellington. The sea at 
the mouth being perfectly open, he would not have 
hesitated to ascend it, had there not been before him, 
along the southern side of an island named Cornwallis, 
an open channel leading due west. Wellington Inlet 
was now considered by the officers, so high were their 
hopes, as forming the western boundary of the land 
stretching from Baffin's Bay to the Polar Sea, into 
which they had little doubt they were entering. For 



PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 87 

this reason, Lieutenant Parry did not hesitate to give to 
the great channel, which was understood to effect so 
desirable a junction, the merited appellation of Barrow's 
Strait, after the much-esteemed promoter of the expedi- 
tion. A favorable breeze now sprang up, and the adven- 
turers passed gayly and triumphantly along the exten- 
sive shore of Cornwallis Island, then coasted a larger 
island, named Bathurst, and next a smaller one, called 
Byam Martin. At this last place they judged, by some 
experiments, that they had passed the magnetic merid- 
ian, situated, probably, in about 100° west longitude, 
and where the compass would have pointed due south 
instead of due north. 

The navigation now became extremely difficult, in 
consequence of thick fogs, which not only froze on the 
shrouds, but, as the compass was also useless, took 
away all means of knowing the direction in which they 
sailed. They were obliged to trust that the land and 
ice would preserve the same line, and sometimes em- 
ployed the oddest expedients for ascertaining the pre- 
cise point. They encountered, also, a compact floe, 
through which they were obliged to bore their way by 
main force. 

Notwithstanding all these obstacles, they reached the 
coast of an island larger than any before discovered, 
to which they gave the name of Melville. The wind 
now failed, and they moved slowly forward by towing 
and warping, till, on the 4th September, the lieutenant 
could announce to his joyful crew that, having reached 
the longitude of 110° west, they were become entitled to 
the reward of five thousand pounds promised by Parlia- 
ment to the first ship's company who should attain that 
meridian. They still pushed forward with redoubled 
ardor, but soon found their course arrested by an 
impenetrable barrier of ice. They waited nearly a fort- 



88 PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

night, in hopes of overcoming it, till, about the 20th, 
their situation became alarming. The young ice began 
rapidly to form on the surface of the waters, retarded 
only by winds and swells, so that the commanding offi- 
cer was convinced that, in the event of a single hour's 
calm, he would be frozen up in the midst of the sea. 

No option was therefore left but to return, and to 
choose between two apparently good harbors, which 
had been recently passed on Melville Island. Not 
without difficulty he reached this place on the 24th, and 
decided in favor of the more western haven, as affording 
the fullest security ; but it was necessary to cut his 
way two miles through a large floe with which it was 
encumbered. To effect this arduous operation, the sea- 
men marked with boarding-pikes two parallel lines, at 
the distance of somewhat more than the breadth of the 
larger ship. They sawed, in the first place, along the 
path tracked out, and then, by cross-sawings, detached 
large pieces, which were separated diagonally, in order 
to be floated out ; and sometimes boat-sails were fas- 
tened to them, to take the advantage of a favorable 
breeze. On the 26th the ships were established in five 
fathoms water, at about a cable's length from the 
beach. For some time the ice was daily cleared round 
them ; but this was soon found an endless and useless 
labor, and they were allowed to be regularly frozen in 
for the winter. 

Parry then applied himself to name the varied group 
of islands along which he had passed. He called them, 
at first. New Georgia ; but, recollecting that this appel- 
lation was preoccupied by one in the Pacific, he gave 
the title of the "North Georgian Islands," in honor of 
his majesty George III., whose reign had been so emi- 
nently distinguished by the extension of nautical and 
geographical knowledge. 



PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 89 

Hunting parties occasionally went out and procured 
a few reindeer ; but a migration of these animals took 
place before the close of October, leaving behind them 
only wolves and foxes to keep the party company dur- 
ing the long winter months. Even the polar hare, so 
common in the Arctic regions, never once showed itself 
on Melville Island in the course of the winter. The 
musk-ox, also very common during its proper season, 
arrived on Melville Island in the middle of May, by 
crossing the ice from the southward, and quitted it by 
the same way on its return towards the end of Septem- 
ber. On the 15th the last covey of ptarmigan was met 
with ; and on the same day were seen fifteen deer, all 
lying down, except one large one, probably a stag ; 
this, after the rising of the rest, seemed to guard the 
animals in their flight, frequently going round the 
herd, sometimes striking them with his horns to make 
them go on, which they appeared not much inclined to 
do. Even seals were not found in this neighborhood ; 
but whales of different kinds were commonly met with ; 
gulls and ducks, however, so numerous in Davis's Strait 
and the Georgian Islands, condescended not to visit 
Melville Island, but " two or three specimens of a cat- 
erpillar were obtained, one of which was brought to 
England'' — of course as an Arctic curiosity. One 
large white bear, having pursued Captain Sabine's ser- 
vant to the ship, was shot at and wounded, but made 
his escape ; it was the only one met with during the 
stay of the party, but described as being more purely 
white than any they had before seen. A feeble willow, 
a saxifrage, lichens, and stunted grasses, constitute 
pretty nearly the j^ora of Melville Island. 

The total privation of game of any kind now afforded 
few excursions for the exercise and amusement of hunt- 
ing. Parties, however, had occasionally been sent out 
8* 



90 PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

shortly after the taking up of their winter quarters. 
One of these did not return on board before sunset, as 
strictly ordered, and the consequence is stated to have 
been as follows : 

"John Pearson, a marine belonging to the Griper, 
who was the last that returned on board, had his hands 
severely frost-bitten, having imprudently gone away 
without mittens, and with a musket in his hand. A 
party of our people most providentially found him, 
although the night was very dark, just as he had fallen 
down a bank of snow, and was beginning to feel that 
degree of torpor and drowsiness which, if indulged, 
inevitably proves fatal. When he was brought on 
board, his fingers were quite stiff, and bent into the 
shape of that part of the musket whic?i he had been 
carrying ; and the frost had so far destroyed the anima- 
tion in his fingers on one hand that it was necessary to 
amputate three of them a short time after, notwith- 
standing all the care and attention paid to him by the 
medical gentlemen. The effect which exposure to se- 
vere frost has in benumbing the mental as well as the 
corporeal faculties was very striking in this man, as 
well as in two of the young gentlemen, who returned 
after dark, and of whom we were anxious to make 
inquiries respecting Pearson. When I sent for them 
into my cabin they looked wild, spoke thick and indis- 
tinctly, and it was impossible to draw from them a 
rational answer to any of our questions. After being 
on board for a short time the mental faculties ajDpeared 
gradually to return with the returning circulation ; and 
it was not till then that a looker-on could easily per- 
suade himself that they had not been drinking too 
freely.'' 

So early as the 29th of October the thermometer was 
down to twenty-four degrees below zero. It was now 



PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 91 

distressing to touch any metallic substance with the 
naked hand in the open air ; it produced a feeling of 
intense heat, and took off the skin. If the eye-piece of 
a telescope touched the face, it occasioned an intense 
burning pain ; the remedy was to cover them and other 
instruments with soft leather. The officers, notwith- 
standing, indulged themselves in walking for an hour or 
two in the middle of the day, in the depth of winter, 
even when the thermometer was down to forty degrees 
or even fifty degrees below zero, without experiencing 
much inconvenience from this intense degree of cold, 
provided always that there was no wind ; but the least 
breeze made the exposure to it intolerable. 

The commander, finding himself and his ships shut in 
for a long and dreary winter, devoted his attention, 
with a mixture of firmness and kindness, to mitigate 
those evils which, even in lower latitudes, had often 
rendered an abode in the Arctic regions so fatal, and to 
economize both the fresh provisions and fuel. 

From the first, Parry was aware that nothing acted 
more strongly as an antiscorbutic than to keep the 
men's minds in a lively and cheerful state. Arrange- 
ments were accordingly made for the occasional per- 
formance of a play, in circumstances certainly very 
remote from any to which the drama appeared conge- 
nial. Lieutenant Beechey was nominated stage-man- 
ager, and the other gentlemen came forward as amateur 
performers. The very expectation thus raised among 
the sailors, and the bustle of preparing a room for the 
purpose, were extremely beneficial ; and when the 
North Georgian Theatre opened with ''Miss in her 
Teens," these hardy tars were convulsed with laughter. 
The Arctic management was extremely popular. The 
officers had another source of amusement in the North 
Georgian Gazette, of which Captain Sabine became 



92 PAERY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

editor, and all were invited to contribute to this chroni- 
cle of the frozen regions. 

On the 1st and 2d of February the sun was looked 
for, but the sky was wrapped in mist ; however, on the 
3d he- was perceived from the maintop of the Hecla. 

Health was maintained on board the ships, by enforced 
exercise and other means, to a surprising degree. Early 
in January, however, Mr. Scallon, the gunner, felt symp- 
toms, first in the legs, and then in the gums, that de- 
cidedly indicated the presence of scurvy, of which the 
immediate cause appeared to be the great collection of 
damp that had formed around his bed-place. At this 
alarm, all the antiscorbutics on board — lemon-juice, 
pickles, and spruce-beer — were put into requisition ; a 
small quantity of mustard and cress was also raised 
from mould placed over the stove-pipe ; and such was 
the success of these remedies, that in nine days the 
patient could walk without pain. 

"Some of our men," says Parry, ''having, in the 
course of their shooting excursions, been exposed for 
several hours to the glare of the sun and snow, returned 
at night much affected with that painful inflammation 
in the eyes occasioned by the reflection of intense light 
from the snow, aided by the warmth of the sun, and 
called in America ' snow blindness.' This complaint, 
of which the sensation exactly resembles that produced 
by large particles of sand or dust in the eyes, is cured 
by some tribes of American Indians by holding them 
over the steam of warm water ; but we found a cooling 
wash, made by a small quantity of acetate of lead mixed 
with cold water, more efficacious in relieving the irrita- 
tion, which was always done in three or four days, 
even in the most severe cases, provided the eyes were 
carefully guarded from the light. As a preventive of 
this complaint, a piece of black crape was given to each 



PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 93 

man, to be worn as a kind of short veil attached to the 
hat, which we found to be very serviceable. A still 
more convenient mode, adopted by some of the officers, 
was found equally efficacious ; this consisted in taking 
the glasses out of a pair of spectacles, and substituting 
black or green crape, the glass having been found to 
heat the eyes and increase the irritation.'' 

On the 16th of March the North Georgian Theatre 
was closed with an appropriate address, and the general 
attention was now turned to the means of extrication 
from the ice. By the Itth of May the seamen had so 
far cut it from around the ships as to allow them to 
float; but in the sea it was still immovable. 

This interval of painful inaction was employed by 
Parry in an excursion across Melville Island. The 
ground was still mostly covered with softened snow, 
and even the cleared tracts were extremely desolate, 
though checkered by patches of fine verdure. Deer 
were seen traversing the plains in considerable num- 
bers. Towards the north appeared another island, to 
which was given the name of Sabine. It was found 
that those parts of Melville Island which were clear of 
snow produced the dwarf willow, sorrel, and poppy, 
and that the moss was very luxuriant. On the second 
day they saw a pair of ducks, and killed seven ptarmi- 
gan ; sorrel and saxifrage were abundant. The party 
found pieces of coal imbedded in sandstone ; passed a 
very extensive, dreary, and uninteresting level plain, 
covered with snow ; and this kind of ground, with occa- 
sional ravines and foggy weather, continued for three 
days, during which they saw not a living animal, except 
one or two flocks of geese. 

• Arrived at Bushman's Cove, in Liddon's Gulf, on the 
western side of Melville Island, the party found "one 
of the pleasantest and most habitable spots we had yet 



94 PAKRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 

seen in the Arctic regions, the vegetation being more 
abundant and forward than in any other place, and the 
situation sheltered and favorable for game/' They 
found here a good deal of moss, grass, dv^arf-willow, 
and saxifrage, and Captain Sabine met with a ranunculus 
in full flower. Thus we see that even in this, the most 
desolate region of the earth, the superiority of the 
western coast predominates. The hunters saw and 
fired at a musk-ox, but did not kill him ; they saw also 
several golden plovers. On the 15th of June they 
reached the ships, and were complimented by their ship- 
mates on their good looks, and as appearing in more 
robust health than when they departed. 

"Having observed," says Parry, ''that the sorrel 
was now so far advanced in foliage as to be easily 
gathered in sufficient quantity for eating, I gave orders 
that two afternoons in each week should be occupied 
by all hands in collecting the leaves of this plant ; each 
man beiug required to bring in, for the present, one 
ounce, to be served in lieu of lemon-juice, pickles, and 
dried herbs, which had been hitherto issued. The 
growth of the sorrel was from this time so quick, and 
the quantity of it so great on every part of the ground 
about the harbor, that we shortly after sent the men out 
every afternoon for an hour or two ; in which time, 
besides the advantage of a healthy walk, they could, 
without difficulty, pick nearly a pound each of this valu- 
able antiscorbutic, of which they were all extremely fond. 

" By the 20th of June, the land in the immediate 
neighborhood of the ships, and especially in low and 
sheltered situations, was much covered with the hand- 
some purple flower of the saxifraga ojDpositifolia, which 
was at this time in great perfection, and gave something 
like cheerfulness and animation to a scene hitherto 
indescribably dreary in its appearance. 



PAKRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 95 

"The suddenness with which the changes take place 
during the short season which may be called summer in 
this climate, must appear very striking when it is re- 
membered that, for a part of the first week in June, we 
were under the necessity of thawing artificially the 
snow which we made use of for water during the early 
part of our journey to the northward ; that, during the 
second week, the ground was in most parts so wet and 
swampy that we could with difiiculty travel ; and that, 
had we not returned before the end of the third week, 
we should probably have been prevented doing so for 
some time, by the impossibility of ^crossing the ravines 
without great danger of being carried away by the tor- 
rents, — an accident that happened to our hunting parties 
on one or two occasions in endeavoring to return with 
their game to the ships. ^' 

By the middle of June, pools were everywhere formed ; 
the water flowed in streams, and even in torrents, which 
rendered hunting and travelling unsafe. There were 
also channels in which boats could pass ; yet, through- 
out this month and the following, the great covering of 
ice in the surrounding sea remained entire, and kept the 
ships in harbor. 

On the 2d of August, however, the whole mass, by 
one of those sudden movements to which it is liable, 
broke up, and floated out, and the explorers had now 
open water in which to prosecute their great object. 

On the l-5th they were enabled to make a certain 
advance, after which the frozen surface of the ocean 
assumed a more compact and impenetrable aspect than 
had ever before been witnessed. The oflicers ascended 
some of the lofty heights which bordered the coast ; 
but, in a long reach of sea to the westward, no boundary 
was seen to these icy barriers. There appeared only 
the western extremity of Melville Island, named Gape 



96 



PAERY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 



Dundas, and in the distance a bold coast, which they 
named Banks's Land. As even a brisk gale from the 
east did not produce the slightest movement on the 
glassy face of the deep, they were led to believe that 
on the other side there must be a large body of land, by 
which it was held in a fixed state. On considering all 
circumstances, there appeared no alternative but to 
make their way homeward while yet the season per- 
mitted. Some additional observations were made, as 
they returned, on the two coasts extending along Bar- 
row's Strait. 

Parry's arrival in Britain was hailed with the warmest 
exultation. To have sailed upwards of thirty degrees 
of longitude beyond the point reached by any former 
navigator ; to have discovered so many new lands, 
islands, and bays ; to have established the much-con- 
tested existence of a Polar Sea north of America ; finally, 
after a wintering of eleven months, to have brought back 
his crew in a sound and vigorous state, were enough to 
raise his name above that of any other Arctic voyager. 




ESQtjnrArx snow-hut. 



CHAPTER V. 

franklin's first land expedition. — INCIDENTS. BACk'S JOtFRNEY. 

SEVERITY OF THE WEATHER. — AURORA BOREALIS. ANECDOTES. 

SITRYEY OF THE COAST. RETXTRN TRIP. SUFFERINGS. MURDER OP 

MR. HOOD. DEATHS. UNEXPECTED RELIEF. ARRIVAL AT YORK 

FACTORY. 

In September of the same year that Parry sailed, an 
overland expedition started from York Factory, Hud- 
son's Bay, under charge of Sir John Franklin, accompa- 
nied by Dr. (now Sir John) Kichardson, two midshipmen, 
— Messrs. Back and Hood, — and Hepburn, a seaman, 
with the object of exploring the north coast of America 
to its eastern extremity from the mouth of the Copper- 
mine. There was a chance that Parry might make for 
the coast in his ships ; and, if so, the two parties would 
have cooperated with mutual advantage. 

On the 19th of January, 1820, Franklin set out in 
company with Mr. Back, and a seaman named Hepburn, 
with provisions for fifteen days stowed in two sledges, 
on their journey to Fort Chipewyan. Dr. Richardson, 
Mr. Hood, and Mr. Connolly, accompanied them a short 
distance. After touching at different posts of the com- 
pany, they reached their destination safely on the 26th 
of March, after a winter's journey of eight hundred and 
fifty-seven miles. The greatest difficulty experienced 
by the travellers was the labor of walking in snow- 
shoes, a weight of between two and three pounds being 
constantly attached to galled feet and swelled ankles. 

Of the state of the temperature during this journey 



98 FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 

there is no record, for a reason explained by Franklin, 
who says that " this evening (18th of January) we 
found the mercury of our thermometer had sunk into 
the bulb, and was frozen/^ 

On the 15th of April the first shower of rain fell ; and 
on the 11th the thermometer rose to 11° in the shade. 
The return of the swans, geese, and ducks, now gave 
certain indications of spring. The warm weather, by 
the sudden melting of the snow and ice, deluged the 
face of the country. Mr. Hood says : "The noise made 
by the frogs which this inundation produced is almost 
incredible. There is strong reason to believe that they 
outlive the severity of winter. They have often been 
found frozen, and revived by warmth ; nor is it possible 
that the multitude which incessantly filled our ears with 
their discordant notes could have been matured in two 
or three days." 

Captain Franklin also notices the resuscitation of 
fishes after being frozen : "It may be worthy of notice 
here, that the fish froze as they were taken out of the 
nets, and in a short time became a solid mass of ice, 
and by a blow or two of the hatchet were easily split 
open, when the intestines might be removed in one 
lump. If, in this completely frozen state, they were 
thawed before the fire, they recovered their animation. 
This was particularly the case with the carp ; and we 
had occasion to observe it repeatedly, as Dr. Richardson 
occupied himself in examining the structure of the dif- 
ferent species of fish, and was always, in the winter, 
under the necessity of thawing them before he could cut 
them. We have seen a carp recover so far as to leap 
about with much vigor after it had been frozen for 
thirty-six hours.'' It maybe stated that the same effect 
is produced on the insect tribe. 

Franklin and his party, increased by the addition of 



FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 99 

sixteen Canadian voyageurs, interpreters, &c., left Fort 
Chipewyan in July, 1820, for Fort Enterprise, on Win- 
ter Lake, more than five hundred miles distant. Here, 
after walking eighty miles to get a look at the Copper- 
mine, they wintered, while Mr. (now Sir George) Back 
returned on foot to Fort Chipewyan, to expedite the 
transit of stores required for the next year's operations. 
At the end of five months he rejoined his companions, 
after a journey which put his powers of endurance to a 
severe test. 

Some interesting instances of Indian generosity are 
recorded in the report of Back's long and perilous jour- 
ney. " One of the women caught a fine pike, by making 
a hole in the ice, which she gave to us ; the Indians 
positively refused to partake of it, from the idea (as we 
afterwards learned) that we should not have sufficient 
for ourselves. ' We are accustomed to starvation,^ said 
they, 'but you are not.' " 

Back, in this dreadful journey, was not only exposed 
to starvation and the extremity of cold, but also to 
the danger of perishing in some of the lakes which they 
had to cross on foot. On a narrow branch of the Slave 
Lake he fell through the ice, but escaped without 
injury ; on another occasion the ice bent so that it 
required the utmost speed to avoid falling through 
where it gave way, as it seems to have done at every 
step he took. In short, it was little less than miracu- 
lous, considering the season and the severity of the 
winter, that he ever returned safe ; which, however, he 
had the good fortune to do on the ITth of March, when 
he arrived at Fort Enterprise, where, he says, '' I had 
the pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health, 
after an absence of nearly five months, during which 
time I had travelled eleven hundred and four miles on 
snow-shoes, and had no other covering, at night, in the 



100 FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 

woods, than a blanket and deer-skin, with the thermom- 
eter frequently at — 40°, and once at — 51°, and some- 
times passing two or three days without tasting food/' 

Franklin gives the following statement in regard to 
the severity of the weather in December : " The weather 
during this month was the coldest we experienced dur- 
ing our residence in America. The thermometer sank 
on one occasion to 5*7° below zero, and never rose 
beyond 6° above it ; the mean for the month was 
— 29°-^. During these intense colds, however, the 
atmosphere was generally calm, and the wood-cutters 
and others went about their ordinary occupations with- 
out using any extraordinary precautions, yet without 
feeling any bad effects. The heat is abstracted most 
rapidly from the body during strong breezes ; and most 
of those who have perished from cold in this country 
have fallen a sacrifice to their being overtaken on a 
lake, or other unsheltered place, by a storm of wind. 
The intense colds were, however, detrimental to us in 
another way. The trees froze to their very centres, and 
became as hard as stones, and more difficult to cut. 
Some of the axes were broken daily, and by the end of 
the month we had only one left that was fit for felling 
trees." 

The aurora borealis made its appearance frequently, 
with more or less brilliancy, but was not particularly 
remarkable ; in the month of December it was visible 
twenty-eight of the long nights. 

The Indians, it appears, have nearly destroyed the 
fur-bearing animals ; and so scarce is the beaver become, 
that in the whole journey to the shores of the Polar Sea 
and back, one single habitation, and one dam only, of 
that industrious and ingenious creature, were met with. 
Among the many interesting anecdotes that have been 
told of this animal. Dr. Richardson relates the following : 



FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 101 

" One day a gentleman, long resident in this coun- 
try, espied five young beavers sporting in the water, 
leaping upon the trunk of a tree, pushing one another 
off, and playing a thousand interesting tricks. He 
approached softly, under cover of the bushes, and pre- 
pared to fire on the unsuspecting creatures ; but a 
nearer approach discovered to him such a similitude 
between their gestures and the infantile caresses of his 
own children, that he threw aside his gun. This gen- 
tleman's feelings are to be envied, but few traders in 
fars would have acted so feelingly.^' 

On the last day of June, 1821, the whole party having 
dragged their canoes and baggage to the bank of the 
Coppermine, — a tedious and fatiguing service, — em- 
barked on the rapid stream, and reached the sea on the 
18th July. The main object of the expedition then 
commenced ; and, with two birch-bark canoes, each 
manned by ten men, and fifteen days' provision, Frank- 
lin paddled to the eastward. 

Proceeding along the coast on the inside of a crowded 
range of islands, they encamped on shore after a run of 
thirty-seven miles, in which they experienced little inter- 
ruption. The coast was found of moderate height, easy 
of access, and covered with vegetation ; but the islands 
were rocky and barren, presenting high cliffs, of a col- 
umnar structure. In continuing their voyage, the dan- 
gers which beset a navigator in these dreadful polar 
solitudes thickened gloomily around them. The coast 
became broken and sterile, and at length rose into a 
high and rugged promontory, against which some large 
masses of ice had drifted, threatening destruction to 
their slender canoes. 

In attempting to round this cape the wind rose, an 
awful gloom involved the sky, and the thunder burst 
over their heads, compelling them to encamp till the 
9* 



102 FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 

storm subsided. They then, at the imminent risk of 
having the canoes crushed by the floating ice, doubled 
the dreary promontory, which they denominated Cape 
Barrow, and entered Detention Harbor, where they 
landed. Around them the land consisted of mountains 
of granite, rising abruptly from the water's edge, desti- 
tute of vegetation, and attaining an elevation of four- 
teen or fifteen hundred feet ; seals and small deer were 
the only animals seen, and the former were so shy that 
all attempts to approach within shot were unsuccessful. 

With the deer the hunters were more fortunate, but 
these were not numeroiis ; and, while the ice closed 
gradually around them, and their little stock of pro- 
visions every day diminished, it was impossible not to 
regard their situation with uneasiness. Rounding Cape 
Kater, they entered Arctic Sound, and sent a party to 
explore a river upon the banks of which they expected 
to find an Esquimaux encampment. All, however, was 
silent, desolate, and deserted ; even these hardy na- 
tives, bred amidst the polar ices, had removed from so 
barren a spot, and the hunters returned with two small 
deer and a brown bear, the latter animal so lean and 
sickly-looking that the men declined eating it ; but the 
officers boiled its paws, and found them excellent. 

Proceeding along the eastern shore of Arctic Sound, 
to which they gave the name of Banks's Peninsula, the 
expedition made its painfulway along a coast indented 
by bays, and in many places studded with islands, till, 
on the 10th of August, they reached the open sea ; and 
sailing, as they imagined, between the continent and a 
large island, found, to their deep disappointment, that, 
instead of an open channel, they were in the centre of a 
vast bay. 

The state of the expedition now called for the most 
serious consideration upon the part of their commander. 



FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 103 

So much time had already been spent in exploring the 
sounds and inlets, that all hope of reaching Repulse Bay 
was vain ; both canoes had sustained material injury ; 
the fuel was expended ; their provisions were sufficient 
only for three days ; the appearances of the setting in 
of the Arctic winter were too unequivocal to be mistaken ; 
the deer, which had hitherto supplied them with fi-esh 
meat, would, it was well known, soon disappear ; the 
geese and other aquatic birds were already seen winging 
their way to the southward ; while the men, who had 
up to this moment displayed the utmost courage, began 
to look disheartened, and to entertain serious apprehen- 
sions for their safety. Under these circumstances, the 
leaders resolved to return. After spending four days 
in a careful survey of the bay, they terminated their 
exploration at a spot which, with literal truth, was 
named Point Turnagain, a distance, reckoning the 
indentations of the shore, of five hundred and fifty-five 
geographical miles. To attempt to reach the Copper- 
mine so late in the season would have been fatal to the 
whole of the party ; they, therefore, made for Hood's 
River, discovered by them a few days previously, up 
which they had ascended to the first rapid by the 26th 
of August. Two small portable canoes were then con- 
structed from the two larger ones, for the purpose of 
crossing rivers on the journey now before them ; and, 
on the 1st of September, they set off on a straight course 
for Fort Enterprise, one hundred and fifty miles distant. 
The fatigues and privations endured on this route are 
scarcely to be paralleled ; short of food, ill supplied 
with clothing, and exposed to the howling severity of 
the climate, the escape of any one of the number appears 
almost a miracle. Some days, when there was nothing 
to eat, and no means of making a fire, they passed 
entirely in bed ; on others, after a weary and exhaust- 



104 FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 

ing travel, their only nourishment on halting for the 
night was tripe de roche, or rock-tripe, a species of 
lichen, a plant of most nauseous taste, and the cause of 
cruel bowel complaints to the whole party. Daily they 
became weaker, and less capable of exertion ; one of the 
canoes was so much broken by a fall, that it was burned 
to cook a supper ; the resource of fishing, too, was 
denied them, for some of the men, in the recklessness 
of misery, threw away the nets. Kivers were to be 
crossed by wading, or in the canoe ; on one of these 
occasions Franklin took his seat with two of the voya- 
geurs in their frail bark, when they were driven by the 
force of the stream and the wind to the verge of a fright- 
ful rapid, in which the canoe upset, and, but for a rock 
on which they found footing, they would there have per- 
ished. On the 19th, ''previous to setting out, the 
whole party ate the remains of their old shoes, and 
whatever scraps of leather they had, to strengthen their 
stomachs for the fatigue of the day's journey. These,'' 
adds Franklin, " would have satisfied us in ordinary 
times, but we were now almost exhausted by slender 
fare and travel, and our appetites had become ravenous. 
We looked, however, with humble confidence to the 
great Author and Giver of all good for a continuance 
of the support which had hitherto been always supplied 
to us at our greatest need." 

A day or two afterwards the remaining canoe was left 
behind ; no entreaties could prevail on the men to carry 
it further. Dr. Eichardson, too, was obliged to abandon 
his collection of plants and minerals, from inability to 
endure the burthen. The killing of five small deer at 
this time, however, enabled them to rest for a couple of 
days to recruit their exhausted strength. On the 26th 
they came to the Coppermine, the crossing of which, 
owing to their weak condition, the loss of the canoe. 



FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 105 

and having to construct a raft of willow branches, 
detained them until the 4th of October. Dr. Eichard- 
son, actuated by the noble desire of making a last effort 
for the safety of the party, and of relieving his suffering 
companions from a state of misery, which could only 
terminate, and that speedily, in death, volunteered to 
make the attempt to swim across the stream, carrying 
with him a line by which the raft might be hauled 
over. 

" He launched into the stream,'' says Franklin, "with 
the line round his middle, but when he had got to a 
short distance from the opposite bank, his arms became 
benumbed with cold, and he lost the power of moving 
them ; still he persevered, and, turning on his back, had 
nearly gained the opposite shore, when his legs also 
became powerless, and, to our infinite alarm, we beheld 
him sink. We instantly hauled upon the line, and he 
came again on the surface, and was gradually drawn 
ashore in an almost lifeless state. Being rolled up in 
blankets, he was placed before a good fire of willows, 
and, fortunately, was just able to speak sufficiently to 
give some slight directions respecting the manner of 
treating him. He recovered strength gradually, and, 
through the blessing of God, was enabled, in the course 
of a few hours, to converse, and by the evening was 
sufficiently recovered to remove into the tent. We then 
regretted to learn that the skin of his whole left side 
was deprived of feeling, in consequence of exposure to 
too great heat. He did not perfectly recover the sensa- 
tion of that side until the following summer. I cannot 
describe what every one felt at beholding the skeleton 
which the doctor's debilitated frame exhibited. When 
he stripped, the Canadians simultaneously exclaimed, 
'Ah! que nous sommes maigres f '^ They were now 
almost in the last stage of starvation ; and, had it not 



106 FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 

been for the exertions of Hepburn in collecting Iripe de 
roche, not one of them would have survived. 

On the Yth, when at twenty-four miles from Fort 
Enterprise, a division of the party took place : Franklin, 
with eight of the men, went on, while Richardson stayed 
behind at the encampment to tend on Hood, who was 
scarcely able to move. Hepburn remained with them. 
Franklin was most unwilling to part with any of his com- 
rades, but saw the necessity of doing so. " And, after," 
he says, " we had united in thanksgiving and prayers to 
almighty God, I separated from my companions, deeply 
afflicted that a train of melancholy circumstances should 
have demanded of me the severe trial of parting, in such 
a condition, from friends who had become endeared to 
me by their constant kindness and cooperation, and a 
participation of numerous sufferings." 

Three of the voyageurs, unable to proceed with 
Franklin, and Michel, an Iroquois, were permitted to 
return to the halting-place, where they would be at 
least certain of fire and rock-tripe ; but, with the excep- 
tion of the Indian, they perished by the way — not one 
of them was ever seen again. Franklin, with his five 
survivors, reached Fort Enterprise on the 11th. What 
a disappointment awaited them ! Instead of a cordial 
welcome from friendly hunters, and abundance of pro- 
visions, as had been promised, all was a blank ; the 
building was tenantless. 

A note was found from Mr. Back, who had journeyed 
on in advance, stating that he had gone in search of the 
Indians, and, if need were, to Fort Providence. This 
was but poor comfort for the famished travellers, who 
were obliged to take up their quarters in the dilapidated 
edifice. The rubbish-heaps concealed beneath the snow 
were searched for old skins, bones, or any kind of offal 
that might serve as food when stewed with rock-tripe. 



FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 107 

A good fire was a luxury seldom enjoyed, for they had 
scarcely strength to collect wood. 

Eighteen weary days were passed in these painful 
privations, when the monotony was interrupted by the 
arrival of Dr. Richardson and Hepburn. Their ema- 
ciated countenances gave evidence of their debilitated 
state. " The doctor particularly remarked the sepulchral 
tones of our voices, which he requested of us to make 
more cheerful, if possible, unconscious that his own 
partook of the same key.'' A partridge which Hepburn 
had shot was held to the fire, and then divided into six 
portions. " I and my three companions," says Frank- 
lin, " ravenously devoured our shares, as it was the 
first morsel of flesh any of us had tasted for thirty-one 
days, unless, indeed, the small, gristly particles which 
we found occasionally adhering to the pounded bones 
may be called flesh." Richardson brought the melan- 
choly intelligence that Mr. Hood and the Iroquois were 
both dead. Michel, in a fit of sullen spite, to which 
uncivilized natures are liable, had shot the young and 
talented officer at the encampment where they had last 
parted ; and his demeanor towards the two survivors 
becoming more and more threatening, the doctor, under 
the imperious instinct of self-preservation, took upon 
himself the responsibility of putting the Indian to death 
by a pistol-shot. As afterwards appeared, there was 
reason to believe that two of the missing voyageurs had 
also been murdered by the Iroquois. 

Two others of the wretched party died on the second 
day after Richardson's arrival at the fort. At last, on 
the 7th of November, relief came, borne by three In- 
dians sent by Mr. Back. The messengers proved them- 
selves most kind, assiduous ' attendants, '' evincing 
humanity that would have done honor to the most civil- 
ized people." And, with good fires and sufficient food. 



108 



FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 



the sufferers began to recover strength. A week later, 
they were able to set out for Fort Chipewyan, where 
they remained until June of the following year. In 
July they reached York Factory, from whence they had 
started three years before ; and thus terminated a jour- 
ney of five thousand five hundred and fifty miles, during 
which human courage and patience were exposed to 
trials such as few can bear with fortitude, unless, as is 
seen in Franklin's interesting narrative, it arises out of 
reliance on the ever-sustaining care of an Almighty 
Providence. 




SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PARKy's second voyage. — AERIVAX AT HUDSON'S STRAIT. — REPULSE 
BAY. — BAFFLING NAVIGATION. ESQUIMAUX FRIENDS. — ARCTIC CLI- 
MATE. FROZEN UP. AMUSEMENTS. ILIGLIUK. LYON'S JOURNEY. 

SNOW HUTS. LAND EXCURSIONS. HARBOR AT IGLOOIK. ANOTHER 

WINTER. PARHELIA. RETURN HOME. PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 

The possibility of entering the Polar Sea having 
been proved by Parry's first voyage, it was considered 
that the north-west passage might probably be effected 
in a lower latitude than that of Melville Island, where 
the icy barrier had. proved impassable. Parry accord- 
ingly was sent out a second time with the Hecla and 
Fury, in May, 1821, with instructions to make for Re- 
pulse Bay by way of Hudson's Strait. The former never 
having been fully examined, it was supposed that some 
opening would be found leading from it to the ocean 
beyond. 

Parry, now promoted to the rank of captain, hoisted 
his flag on board the Fury, while Captain Lyon, already 
distinguished by his services in Africa, received the 
command of the Hecla. The equipment, the victualling, 
and the heating of the vessels, were all accomplished 
with the greatest care, and with various improvements 
suggested by experience. 

The adventurers quitted the Nore on the 8th of May, 

1821, passed through the Pentland Frith and by Cape 

Farewell, and on the 2d of July were at the mouth of 

Hudson's Strait, Parry, accustomed as he was to 

10 



110 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

views of polar desolation, was struck with the exceed- 
ingly dreary aspect which these shores presented. The 
naked rocks, the snow still covering the valleys, and 
the thick fogs that hung over them, rendered the scene 
indescribably gloomy. The ships were soon surrounded 
by icebergs, amounting to the number of fifty-four, 
one of which rose at least two hundred and fifty-eight 
feet above the sea. They were attended by large floes, 
and rendered very formidable by their rotatory motion. 
In spite of every obstruction, Parry, early in August, 
reached the entrance of Fox's Channel, and came in 
view of Southampton Island. It was now the question 
whether to sail directly up this inlet, and reach, by a 
comparatively short route. Repulse Bay and the higher 
latitudes, or to make the south-western circuit of South- 
ampton Island, and ascend the beaten tr^ck of the Wel- 
come. Parry judiciously preferred the former, notwith- 
standing its uncertainties, on account of the great time 
which would be saved should the course be found prac- 
ticable. On the 15th he came to an opening stretching 
westward, and apparently separating the island from 
other land on the north. Hoping to find this the Frozen 
Strait of Middleton, he entered it ; but it soon proved 
a spacious and beautiful basin, enclosed by land on 
every side. He named it the Duke of York's Bay, and 
considered it one of the finest harbors in the world ; 
but, after admiring a large floe covered entirely with 
minerals, shells, and plants, he moved out of it, and 
pursued the voyage. 

On the 21st the navigators found themselves in 
another strait, not much encumbered with ice, but dark- 
ened by thick fogs ; and before they knew distinctly 
where they were, a heavy swell from the southward 
showed that they had already passed through the 
Frozen Strait, and were in the broad channel of the 



PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. HI 

Welcome. They speedily entered Repulse Bay, in 
which modern speculation had cherished the hope of a 
passage ; but a short investigation made by boats in 
every direction proved that it was really, as Middleton 
had described it, completely enclosed. A good deal of 
time had thus been lost through the scepticism so un- 
justly attached to the narrative of that eminent seaman. 

The appearance of the shores of Repulse Bay was far 
from uninviting. " The surrounding land rose from six 
or seven hundred to a thousand feet, and there was no 
want of vegetation usually found in this part of the 
Arctic regions, and in many parts it was extremely lux- 
uriant.^^ Reindeer and hares were plentiful ; so were 
ducks, dovekies, and snow-buntings. Several black 
wliales also were observed in the bay. In one spot the 
remains of no less than sixty Esquimaux habitations 
were found, consisting of stones laid one over the other, 
in very regular circles, eight or nine feet in diameter ; 
besides about a hundred artificial structures, fireplaces, 
store-houses, and other walled enclosures four or five 
feet high, used for keeping their skin canoes from being 
gnawed by the dogs. In various parts of the shore 
were found numbers of circles of stones, which were 
supposed to have been burying-places, a human skull 
being found near one of them. 

Leaving Repulse Bay, Parry began the career of dis- 
covery along a coast hitherto unknown. An inlet was 
soon observed, and called by the name of Gore ; but 
was not found to extend far into the interior. At the 
mouth of this opening, the valleys were richly clad 
with grass and moss, the birds singing, butterflies and 
other insects displaying the most gaudy tints, so that 
the sailors might have fancied themselves in some hap- 
pier climate, had not the mighty piles of ice in the 
Frozen Strait told a different tale. 



Il2 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

Having passed Gore Inlet, the discoverers found 
themselves among those numerous isles described by 
Middleton, which formed a complete labyrinth of various 
shapes and sizes, while strong currents setting between 
them in various directions, amid fogs and drifting ice, 
rendered the navigation truly perilous. However, one 
channel was observed, by which the mariners at last 
made their way through this perilous maze. No sooner 
had they reached the open sea, than, being obliged to 
run before a strong northerly breeze, they were much 
disheartened to find themselves, on the 3d of Septem- 
ber, at the very point which they had left on the 6th of 
August. All the interval had been employed in the 
merely negative discovery, that there was nothing to 
discover. 

The commander soon reached the northern coast, and 
resumed his task, which was rendered very tedious by 
the necessity of examining every opening and channel, 
in the hope that each might prove the desired passage 
into the Polar Ocean. He first explored a large inlet, 
the name of which he gave to Captain Lyon ; then a 
smaller one, which was named from Lieutenant Hopp- 
ner ; and by connecting these with Gore Inlet, he com- 
pleted his delineation of the coast. 

The seamen had the pleasure of opening a traffic with 
a party of Esquimaux, whose first timidity was soon 
overcome by the hope of being supplied with some iron 
tools. In the course of this transaction, the surprise 
of the crew was roused by the conduct of a lady, who 
had sold one boot, but obstinately retained the other, 
in disregard of the strongest remonstrances as to the 
ridiculous figure she in consequence made. At length 
suspicion rose to such a pitch, that, all courtesy being 
set aside, her person was seized, and the buskin pulled 
off. Then, indeed, it proved a complete depository of 



PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 113 

stolen treasure, there being no less than two spoons and 
a pewter plate secreted within its capacious cavity. 

The end of September now approached, and Parry- 
found himself suddenly in the depth of winter. An 
alarming symptom appeared in the rapid formation of 
the soft or pancake ice on the surface of the deep. The 
obstacle thereby occasioned was at first so slight as to 
be scarcely felt by a ship before a brisk gale ; but it 
continually increased, till at length the vessel, rolling 
from side to side, became like Gulliver bound by the 
feeble hands of Lilliputians. At the same time the 
various pieces of drift-ice, which were tossing in the 
sea without, had been cemented into one great field 
called "the ice,'' that threatened every moment to bear 
down upon the brigs and dash them in pieces. Under 
these circumstances, the navigators could no longer 
even attempt to reach the land, but determined to saw 
into the heart of an adjoining floe, and there take up 
their winter quarters. There was about half a mile to 
penetrate, which, in the soft state of the pancake ice, 
was not very laborious. It was, however, far from 
pleasant, as it bended like leather beneath their feet, 
and caused them sometimes to sink into the water, 
whence it was impossible they could escape without a 
very cold bath. 

An observation of Parry shows that the Arctic cli- 
mate, equally with our own, is influenced by a change 
of the wind. Thus, on the 20th of October, when the 
wind was N. N. W., the thermometer fell to — 10° ; but, 
veering to the S. E. on the 24th and 25th, it rose to 
-f-23°. " I may possibly,'' he says, "incur the charge 
of affectation in stating that this temperature was much 
too high to be agreeable to us ; but it is, nevertheless, 
the fact, that everybody felt and complained of the 
change. This is explained by their clothing, bedding, 
10* 



114 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

fires, and other precautions against the severity of the 
climate, having been once adapted to a low degree of 
cold, an increase of temperature renders them oppress- 
ive and inconvenient." Another circumstance is men- 
tioned, which may serve to confirm a conjecture which 
has long been maintained by some, that an open sea, 
free of ice, exists- at or near the pole. " On the 2d of 
November," says Parry, " the wind, freshened up to a 
gale from N. by W., lowered the thermometer before 
midnight to — 5°, whereas a rise of wind at Melville 
Island was generally accompanied by a simultaneous 
rise in the thermometer at low temperatures. May not 
this," he asks, '' be occasioned by the wind blowing 
over an open sea in the quarter from which the wind 
blows, and tend to confirm the opinion that at or near 
the pole an open sea, free of ice, exists ? " 

Parry was now frozen up for another winter in the 
midst of the Northern Sea, and he forthwith applied 
himself to make the necessary arrangements, with that 
judicious foresight which had been already so conspic- 
uous in the same trying circumstances. As the result 
of experience, not less than of several ingenious con- 
trivances, the ships were much more thoroughly heated 
than in the former voyage ; the provisioning, too, was 
more ample, and antidotes against scurvy still more 
copiously supplied. The Polar Theatre opened, on the 
9th of February, with " The Rivals." The two captains 
appeared as Sir Anthony and Captain Absolute ; while 
those who personated the ladies had very generously 
removed an ample growth of beard, disregarding the 
comfortable warmth which it afforded in an Arctic cli- 
mate. The company were well received, and went 
through their performances with unabated spirit. But 
the discomfort of a stage, the exhibitions of which were 



PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 115 

attended with a cold thirty degrees under the freezing- 
point, became rather severe. 

The sailors found for themselves a more sober and 
useful, as well as efficacious remedy against ennui. 
They established a school, in which the better instructed 
undertook to revive the knowledge of letters among 
those who had almost entirely lost the slight tincture 
that they had once imbibed. These hardy tars applied 
themselves to their book with ardent and laudable zeal, 
and showed a pride in their new attainments like that 
of little boys in their first class. At Christmas, sixteen 
well-written copies were produced by those who, two 
months before, could scarcely form a letter. Amid 
these varied and pleasing occupations, the shortest day 
passed over their heads almost unobserved, especially 
as the sun did not entirely leave them. Captain Lyon 
never saw a merrier festival than was celebrated on 
board. 

The first day of the new year is described as being a 
very severe one in the open air, the thermometer down 
to — 22°, and the wind blowing strong from the N. W., 
on which it may be observed, that the efiect of a strong 
breeze on the feelings, even in temperate climates, is 
well known, but at low temperatures it becomes pain- 
ful, and almost insupportable. '' Thus," says Parry, 
" with the thermometer at — 55°, and no wind stirring, 
the hands may remain uncovered for ten minutes or a 
quarter of an hour without inconvenience ; while, with 
a fresh breeze, and the thermometer nearly as high as 
zero, few people can keep their hands exposed so long 
without considerable pain,'^ 

The monotony of the scene was now greatly relieved 
by a friendly visit from the natives, and an invitation 
was given to the Esquimaux to repair to the ships, 
when fifty accepted it with alacrity. Partly walking, 



116 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

and partly skipping, they speedily reached the vessels, 
where a striking congeniality of spirit was soon found 
to exist between them and the sailors ; boisterous fun 
forming to each the chief source of enjoyment. A 
fiddle and drum being produced, the natives struck up 
a dance, or rather a succession of vehement leaps, ac- 
companied with loud shouts and yells. Seeing the 
Kabloonas, or Whites, as they called our countrymen, 
engaged in the game of leap-frog, they attempted to 
join ; but not duly understanding how to measure their 
movements, they made such over-leaps as sometimes 
to pitch on the crown of their heads ; however, they 
sprang up quite unconcerned. Their attention was spe- 
cially attracted to the effects of a winch, by which one 
sailor drew towards him a party of ten or twelve of their 
number, though grinning and straining every nerve in 
resistance ; but, finding all in vain, they joined in the 
burst of good-humored laughter till tears streamed from 
their eyes. 

One intelligent old man followed Captain Lyon to the 
cabin, and viewed, with rational surprise, various objects 
which were presented. The performance of a hand-organ 
and a musical snuff-box struck him with breathless ad- 
miration ; and, on seeing drawings of the Esquimaux 
in Hudson's Strait, he soon understood them, and point- 
ed out the difference between their dress and appear- 
ance and that of his own tribe. On viewing the sketch 
of a bear, he raised a loud cry, drew up his sleeves, and 
showed the scars of three deep wounds recived in en- 
counters with that terrible animal. 

As spring advanced, the attention of the officers was 
almost wholly engrossed by the prospects of discovery 
during the approaching summer. The Esquimaux, by 
no means destitute of intelligence, and accustomed to 
shift continually from place to place, were found to 



PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 117 

have acquired a very extensive knowledge of the seas 
and coasts of this part of America. One female, in par- 
ticular, named Iligliuk, who borer even among her coun- 
trymen the character of '' a wise woman," was, after 
a little instruction, enabled to convey to the strangers 
the outlines of her geographical knowledge in the form 
of a rude m*ap. A pencil being put into her hand, she 
traced the shore from Eepulse Bay with such a degree 
of accuracy as inspired great confidence in what she 
might further delineate. She then began to exhibit a 
coast reaching far to the north, being, in fact, the east- 
ern limits of Melville Peninsula. Next her pencil took 
a western direction, when her further progress was 
watched with the deepest interest ; in the course of 
which she represented a strait between two opposite 
lands, that extended westward till it opened on each 
side, and spread into an ocean apparently unbounded. 
This sketch, which promised to fulfil their most sanguine 
hopes, gratified the officers beyond measure, and they 
loaded Iligliuk with attentions. 

Parry gives an interesting account of the sudden 
appearance of an Esquimaux snow village near the 
ships. "If the first view," he says, ''of the exterior 
of this little village was such as to create astonishment, 
that feeling was in no small degree heightened on 
accepting the invitation soon given us to enter these 
extraordinary houses, in the construction of which we 
observed that not a single material was used but snow 
and ice. After creeping through two low passages, 
having each its arched doorway, we came to a small 
circular apartment, of which the roof was a perfect 
arched dome. From this three doorways, also arched, 
and of larger dimensions than the outer ones, led into 
as many inhabited apartments, one on each side, and the 
other facing us as we entered. The interior of these 



118 PAKRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

presented a scene no less novel than interesting. The 
women were seated on the beds at the sides of the 
huts, each having her little fireplace, or lamp, with all 
her domestic utensils about her ; the children crept 
behind their mothers, and the dogs, except the female 
ones, which were indulged with a part of the beds, 
slunk out past us in dismay. The construction of this 
inhabited part of the huts was similar to that of the 
outer apartment, being a dome formed by separate 
blocks of snow, laid with great regularity and no small 
art, each being cut into the shape requisite to form a 
substantial arch, from seven to eight feet high in the 
centre, and having no support whatever but what this 
principle of building supplied. ^^ 

These Esquimaux display much skill in fitting and 
sewing their dresses, and in the manufacture of canoes, 
weapons, and domestic implements. They eat little else 
than animal food, and, whenever they can get it, will 
devour from ten to twelve pounds of flesh or blubber 
in a day. Their only domestic animal is the dog ; de- 
prived of this useful creature, their existence would be 
extremely precarious. On the long journeys which they 
take in search of food, six of these dogs will draw a 
sledge with a load of half a ton from seven to eight 
miles an hour during a whole day. 

Captain Lyon, in the middle of March, undertook a 
journey across a piece of land lying between the station 
of the ships and the continent, which had been named 
Winter Island. The party were scarcely gone, when 
they encountered a heavy gale, bringing with it clouds 
of drift, and a cold so intense that they could not stop 
for a moment without having their faces covered with 
frost-bites ; and their escape with their lives during the 
night and following day was nearly miraculous. Their 
sledge was lost in the snow. Some began to sink into 



PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 119 

that dreadful insensibility which is the prelude to death 
by cold, and to reel about like drunken men. In fact, 
they had resigned almost every hope of escape, when, 
providentially, there appeared a newly-beaten track, 
which they determined to follow, and in ten minutes it 
led them to the ships. Their arrival there caused 
indescribable joy, as they had been nearly given up for 
lost ; while no one could be sent in search of them 
without imminent risk of sharing their fate. 

After various incidents, and unsuccessful attempts to 
free the vessels from the ice, they at length, on the 2d 
July, resumed their voyage of discovery. They had a 
favorable run through the entrance, which formed a 
continuation of Fox's Channel ; but a strong current 
from the north was still bringing down the ice with 
great force. The Hecla underwent some severe press- 
ures, and, within five or six hundred yards of the Fury, 
two large floes- dashed against each other with such a 
tremendous concussion, that numberless huge masses 
were thrown fifty or sixty feet into the air. The ves- 
sel, had she come for a second within the sphere of 
these movements, must have been crushed to pieces — 
happily she escaped. This current, however, was highly 
promising, since it could not be traced to the mouth of 
Hudson's Strait, and must therefore, they concluded, 
have come from the Western Ocean, which they were so 
anxious to reach. 

The ice passed by, and the ships proceeded with a 
favoring wind and tide.' The shores began now to put 
on their summer aspect ; the snow had nearly disap- 
peared, and the ground was covered with the richest 
bloom of Arctic vegetation. The navigators came 
to a fine river named Barrow, which formed a most 
picturesque fall down rocks richly fringed with very 
brilliant plants. Here the reindeer sporting, the eider- 



120 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

duck, the golden plover, and the snow bunting spread- 
ing their wings, produced a gay and delightful scene. 
On the 14th they reached the island of Amitioke, which 
had been described as situated near the strait they were 
then endeavoring to attain. 

The discoverers now proceeded northwards, and saw 
before them a bold and high range of coast, apparently 
separated from that along which they were sailing. 
This feature, agreeing with the indications of Iligliuk, 
flattered them that they were approaching the strait 
exhibited by her as forming the entrance into the Polar 
Basin. They pushed on, full of hope and animation, and 
were further cheered by reaching the small island of 
Igloolik, which she had described as situated at the very 
commencement of the passage. Accordingly, they soon 
saw the strait stretching westward before them in long 
perspective ; but, alas 1 they discovered at the same 
moment an unbroken sheet of ice frorg shore to shore, 
crossing and blocking up the passage ; and this not a 
loose accidental floe, but the field of the preceding 
winter, on which the midsummer sun had not produced 
the slightest change. Unable to advance, they amused 
themselves with land excursions in difierent directions ; 
and Parry at length determined, on the 14th August, 
with a party of six, to undertake an expedition along the 
frozen surface of the strait. 

The journey was very laborious, the ice being some- 
times thrown up in rugged hummocks, and occasionally 
leaving large spaces of open water, which it was neces- 
sary to cross on a plank, or on pieces of ice, instead of 
boats. In four days they came in view of a peninsula 
terminated by a bold cape, the approach to which was 
guarded by successive ranges of strata, resembling the 
tiers or galleries of a commanding fortification. The 
party, however, scrambled to the summit, whence they 



PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 121 

enjoyed a most gratifying spectacle. They were at the 
narrowest part of the strait, here about two miles across, 
with a tide or current running through it at the rate of 
two miles an hour. Westward, the shores on each side 
receded, till, for three points of the compass, and amid 
a clear horizon, no land was visible. Parry doubted 
not that from this position he beheld the Polar Sea, 
into which, notwithstanding the formidable barriers of 
ice which intervened, he cherished the most sanguine 
hopes of forcing his way. He named this the Strait of 
the Fury and Hecla. 

He now lost no time in returning to the. ships, where 
his arrival was very seasonable ; for the opposing bar- 
rier, which had been gradually softening and breaking 
into various rents and fissures, at once almost entirely 
disappeared, and the vessels next morning were in 
open water. On the 21st they got under weigh, and, 
though retarded by fogs and other obstructions, had 
arrived on the 26th at that central and narrowest chan- 
nel which the commander had formerly reached. A 
brisk breeze now sprang up, the sky cleared, they 
dashed across a current of three or four knots an hour, 
and sanguinely hoped for an entire success, which 
would compensate so many delays and disappointments. 

Suddenly, it was announced from the crow's nest 
that ice, in a continuous field, unmoved from its winter 
station, occupied the whole breadth of the channel. In 
an hour they reached this barrier, which they found 
soft, porous, and what is termed rotten. Spreading all 
their canvas, they bore down upon it, and actually forced 
their way through a space of three or four hundred 
yards ; but there they stuck, and found their progress 
arrested by an impenetrable mass. From this point, 
during the whole season, the ships were unable to 
11 



122 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

advance a single yard ; nor had the crews any means 
of exerting their activity except in land journeys. 

Captain Lyon undertook an expedition southward, to 
ascertain if any inlet or passage from sea to sea in this 
direction had escaped notice. The country, however, 
was so filled with rugged and rocky hills, some a thou- 
sand feet high, and with chains of lakes in which much 
ice was floating, that he could not proceed above seven 
miles. Though it was the beginning of September, the 
season was only that of early spring ; and the buds of 
the poppy and saxifrage were just unfolding, to be pre- 
maturely nipped by the fast-approaching winter. 

More satisfactory information was derived from 
another excursion made by Messrs. Reid and Bushman, 
who penetrated sixty miles westward along the southern 
coast of Cockburn Island, till they reached a pinnacle, 
whence they saw, beyond all doubt, the Polar Ocean 
spreading its vast expanse before them ; but tremendous 
barriers of ice filled the' strait, and precluded all ap- 
proach towards that great and desired object. 

It was now the middle of September, and the usual 
symptoms of deer trooping in herds southward, floating 
pieces of ice consolidated into masses, and the thin 
pancake crust forming on the surface of the waters, 
reminded the mariners not only that they could hope 
for no further removal of the obstacles which arrested 
their progress, but that they must lose no time in pro- 
viding winter quarters. The middle of the strait, at the 
spot where they had been first stopped, occurred as the 
station whence they would be most likely to push 
future discovery ; but prudence suggested a doubt, 
whether the ships, enclosed in this icy prison, with 
such strong barriers on each side, might ever be able to 
effect their extrication. The chance of being shut up 
here for eleven months, amid the privations of an Arctic 



PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 123 

winter, appeared, at all events, a serious consideration. 
By returning to Igloolik, they would be ready to catch 
the earliest opening, which was expected to take place 
on the eastern side, from whence a few days would 
bring them back to their present station. 

On the 30th of October, by the usual operation of 
sawing, the ships were established in a harbor at Igloo- 
lik. The ensuing season was passed with the most 
careful attention to the health and comfort of the crews ; 
but, though their spirits did not sink, there appears to 
have been, on the whole, less of gayety and lightness 
of heart than in the two former years. We hear nothing 
of the drama, or even of the school. In this position, 
north of Winter Island, they were deprived for about 
seven weeks of the sun's cheering beams. On the 2d of 
December refraction still showed, from the deck of the 
Fury, about the sixteenth part of his disk. At the New 
Year, Arcturus and Capella, stars of the first magnitude, 
were visible half an hour before and after mid-day. On 
the 5th of January, 1823, the horizon was so brightly 
suffused with red, that they hoped ere long to see the 
sun's orb burst forth ; but a fortnight of thick fog occa- 
sioned a disappointment. On the 19th, the sky having 
cleared, they saw him rise, attended by two parhelia, 




PARHELIA. 



and both crews turned out to enjoy the novelty and 
splendor of this cheering spectacle. One of these par- 



124 PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

helia was very bright and prismatic, being thrown upon 
a thick cloud ; the other scarcely perceptible, having a 
blue sky as its back-ground. To each of these mock 
suns bright yellow bands of light were attached, as 
shown in the diagram. 

The- sailors found at Igloolik a colony of Esquimaux, 
who received them at first with surprise and some de- 
gree of alarm ; but, on learning they were from Winter 
Island, and intimate with its tenants of last season, they 
welcomed them as familiar acquaintances. The crews 
spent the winter with them on a friendly footing, and 
rendered important services to many individuals during 
a period of severe sickness. 

The spring proved unfavorable. Captain Lyon at- 
tempted to penetrate across Melville Peninsula, but 
found the road so barred by steep chains of mountains, 
that he was obliged to return in nineteen days, without 
any discovery, except of two rapid rivers falling into 
the sea near Igloolik. Lieut. Hoppner accompanied a 
party of Esquimaux to Cockburn Island, but could not 
make his way to any distance inland. It was the Tth 
of August before they were able, by severe sawing, to 
reach the open sea ; by which time Parry had renounced 
the hope of effecting anything important during the 
short remnant of this season. He formed, however, a 
very bold plan, which was to bring all the stores of the 
other vessel on board the Fury, and with it alone to 
brave a third winter in the polar regions, hoping that 
the succeeding summer might be more propitious. But, 
as he was preparing to carry this too daring project into 
efiect, a report was made that symptoms of scurvy had 
broken out on several of the crew, whose physical 
strength appeared to be generally impaired by the two 
hard winters through which they had passed. This left 
no choice ; and, in compliance with the general opinion 



PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 125 

of his officers, he forthwith began his voyage home- 
wards. 

The ships were drifted about in a stormy sea, covered 
with ice, for twenty-four days ; but, being at last favored 
with a westerly breeze, they crossed the Atlantic, and 
on the 10th of October, 1823, arrived in Brassa Sound, 
Shetland. 

Two attempts had thus been made, each to a certain 
point successful, but both arrested much short of the 
completion of the grand enterprise. The government 
at home, however, were not willing to stop short in 
their spirited career. The western extremity of Mel- 
ville Island, and the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, ap- 
peared to be both so blocked up as to afford little hope ; 
but Prince Eegent's Inlet seemed more likely to lead to 
a prosperous issue. A passage through this channel 
would bring the ships to the great sea bounding the 
northern coast of America, that had been seen from the 
strait mentioned above, and by which there was the 
fairest prospect of reaching, by the most direct route, 
the waters of the great Pacific. To follow up these 
views, Parry was again fitted out in the Hecla ; while, 
in the accidental absence of Captain Lyon, the Fury 
was intrusted to Lieutenant, now Captain, Hoppner, 
who had taken an active part in the operations of the 
preceding voyage. 

The expedition set sail from Northfleet on the 19th 
of May, 1824, and was in Davis's Strait by the middle 
of June. As the season, however, chanced to be pecu- 
liarly rigorous, it was not till the 10th of September 
that, after repeated repulses and severe straining, they 
caught a view of the bold and magnificent shores of 
Lancaster Sound, in which a few solitary icebergs were 
floating. After this they thought themselves fortunate 
when, by pushing their way through many miles of 
11* 



126 



PAHRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 



newlj-formed ice, they reached Port Bowen, in time to 
make it their winter quarters. 

Here they remained until the 20th of July, 1825, 
when the voyage was resumed, but under very dis- 
couraging circumstances. Great accumulations of ice 
rendered it almost impossible to advance ; the Fury 
was driven on shore, and abandoned, though most of 
her stores were saved and piled on the beach ; and the 
Hecla returned to England with a double complement 
of men and officers. This was the least successful of 
Parry's voyages, but there is a fact connected with it 
which deserves to be recorded : it proved that the 
anxiety and difficulty consequent on the loss of power 
in the compasses need no longer exist. The placing of a 
small circular plate of iron in the line of no direction of 
the ship, and near to the needle, effects a compensation 
which keeps the latter in working condition. This con- 
trivance is due to Mr. Peter Barlow, of Woolwich, and 
Parry says, ''Never had an invention a more complete 
and satisfactory triumph ; for to the last moment of our 
operations at sea did the compass indicate the true 
magnetic direction. '^ 




CHAPTER VII. 

lyon's voyage. — beechey's expedition. — franklin's second land 

expedition. — fort franklin. winter at great bear lake. — 

embarkation. separation op the party. progress of frank- 

LIN'S DIVISION. ATTACK BY ESQriMAUX. — RETURN TO FORT FRANK- 
LIN. — Richardson's division. — second winter at the fort. 

Concurrently with Parry's third voyage, three other 
expeditions were undertaken, with the two-fold object 
of making the north-west passage and of completing the 
survey of the North American coast. The first, by 
Captain Lyon, in the Griper, was to proceed by Hud- 
son's Strait and Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome to Re- 
pulse Bay ; then to cross over Melville Isthmus, and 
survey the coast of America as far as where Franklin 
left off, at Point Turnagain. The vessel sailed in June, 
1824, but, being totally unfit for the service, except in 
the quality of strength, she was nearly wrecked on two 
occasions in the Welcome, and all on board placed in 
imminent peril of their lives ; and at last. Repulse Bay 
being eighty miles distant, the enterprise was aban- 
doned. 

The second expedition, in the Blossom, under the 
command of Captain Beechey, was despatched in 1825, 
to sail round Cape Horn, and enter the Polar Sea by 
Behring's Strait, so as to arrive at Chamisso Island, in 
Kotzebue Sound, by the 10th of July, 1826, there to 
wait for the third expedition, unjier Franklin, of which 
more presently. 



128 BEECHEY'S EXPEDITION. 

On the 2d of June, having left the Sandwich Islands, 
he shaped his course for Karntschatka, and on the 2tth 
was becalmed within six miles of Petropalauski. The 
best guides to this harbor are a range of high moun- 
tains, on one of which, upwards of eleven thousand feet 
in height, a volcano is in constant action. It was a 
serene and beautiful evening when they approached this 
remote quarter of the world, and all were struck with 
the magnificence of the mountains capped with peren- 
nial snow, and rising in solemn grandeur one above the 
other. At intervals the volcano emitted dark columns 
of smoke ; and, from a sprinkling of black spots upon 
the snow to the leeward, it was conjectured there had 
been a recent eruption. 

From Petropalauski, Beechey sailed, on the 1st of 
July, for Kotzebue's Sound. " We approached,^' says 
he, ''the strait which separates the two great continents 
of Asia and America, on one of those beautiful still 
nights well known to all who have visited the Arctic 
regions, when the sky is without a cloud, and when the 
midnight sun, scarcely his own diameter below the 
horizon, tinges with a bright hue all the northern circle. 
Our ship, propelled by an increasing breeze, glided rap- 
idly along a smooth sea, startling from her path flocks 
of aquatic birds, whose flight, in the deep silence of the 
scene, could be traced by the ear to a great distance.'' 
Having closed in with the American shore some miles 
northward of Cape Prince of Wales, they were visited 
by a little Esquimaux squadron belonging to a village 
situated on a low sandy island. 

The natives readily sold everything- they possessed, 
and were cheerful and good-humore.d, though exceed- 
ingly noisy and energetic. Their bows were more slen- 
der than those of the islanders to the southward, but 
made on the same principle, with drift-pine, assisted 



BEECHEY'S EXPEDITION. 129 

with thongs of hide, or pieces of whalebone placed at 
the back, and neatly bound with small cord. The 
points of their arrows were of bone, flint, or iron, and 
their spears headed with the same materials. Their 
dress was similar to that of the other tribes on the 
coast. It consisted of a shirt, which reached, half-way 
down the thigh, with long sleeves, and a hood of rein- 
deer-skin, and edged with gray or white fox fur. Be- 
sides this they had a jacket of eider-drake skins sewed 
together, which, when engaged in war, they wore below 
their other dress, reckoning it a tolerably efficient pro- 
tection against an arrow or a spear-thrust. In wet 
weather they threw over the fur dress a shirt made of 
the entrails of the whale, which, being well saturated 
with oil and grease, was water-tight ; and they also used 
breeches of deer's hide, and seal-skin boots, to the 
upper end of which were fixed strings of sea-horse 
hide. It was their fashion to tie one of these strings 
round the waist, and attach to it a long tuft of hair, the 
wing of a bird, or, sometimes, a fox's tail, which, dan- 
gling behind as they walked, gave them a ridiculous 
appearance, and may probably have occasioned the 
report of the Tschuktschi recorded in Muller, that the 
people of this country have tails like dogs. 

On the 22d of July the ship anchored in Kotzebue's 
Sound, and, after exploring a deep inlet on its northern 
shore, which they named Hotham Inlet, proceeded to 
Chamisso Island, where the Blossom was to await 
Franklin. A discretionary power had, however, been 
permitted to Beechey, of employing the period of his 
stay in surveying the coast, provided this could be done 
without the risk of missing Franklin. Having, accord 
ingly, directed the barge to keep in^shore on the look- 
out for the land party, he sailed to the northward, and, 
doubling Gape Krusenstern, completed an examination 



130 BEECHEY'S EXPEDITION. 

of the coast by Cape Thomson, Point Hope, Cape Lis- 
burn, Cape Beaufort, and Icy Cape. As there were 
here strong indications of the ice closing in, and his 
instructions were positive to keep in open water, if pos- 
sible, he determined to return to Kotzebue's Sound, 
whilst he despatched the barge, under his lieutenants, 
to trace the coast to the north-eastward, as far as they 
could navigate. 

On this service the barge set out, on the Itth of 
August. She proceeded along the coast, and surveyed 
one hundred and twenty-six miles of new shore, until 
stopped by a long, low, projecting tongue of land, to 
which the name of Point Barrow was given, but without 
meeting or hearing any tidings of the expected overland 
party ; though it was afterwards ascertained that 
Point Barrow was distant only one hundred and forty- 
six miles from the extreme point reached by Franklin. 

In the mean time Beechey returned with the Blossom 
to Kotzebue's Sound. There she remained at the an- 
chorage till October, when it became necessary to 
depart, to prevent her being frozen in for the winter ; 
and, after a cruise in the Pacific, she shaped her course 
once more for the rendezvous at Chamisso Island. Dur- 
ing the voyage to that point, where they arrived August 
2tth, 1827, Beechey and his men had repeated inter- 
views with the Esquimaux, whose habits and disposi- 
tion were in no respect different from those of the 
natives already described. They found them uniformly 
friendly, sociable, devotedly fond of tobacco, eager to 
engage in traffic, and, upon the whole, honest, though 
disposed to drive a hard bargain. On some occasions 
they attempted to impose upon their customers, by 
skins artfully put together, so as to represent an entire 
fish ; but it was difficult to determine whether they 
intended a serious fraud or only a piece of humor, for 



FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 131 

they laughed heartily when detected, and appeared to 
consider it a good joke. Their persons, houses, and 
cookery, were all exceedingly dirty, and their mode of 
salutation was by a mutual contact of noses ; sometimes 
licking their hands, and stroking first their own faces, 
and afterwards those of the strangers. 

The weather proved unfavorable for further operations ; 
there was very little open sea ; and, in endeavoring to 
push along the shore, the barge was wrecked, and sev- 
eral of her crew drowned ; and on the 6th of October 
Beechey was obliged to abandon further exploration, 
grieved and disappointed that he had not the satisfac- 
tion of bearing with him the adventurous party whom 
he had been sent especially to meet. He arrived in 
England October 12, 1828, having been absent on his 
voyage three years and a half. 

The party under Franklin comprised the third of the 
expeditions to which we have referred. In 1824, Frank- 
lin, undeterred by the recollection of the fearful hard- 
ships endured in his former overland journey, proposed 
a second, which, descending the Mackenzie River to 
the sea, should there divide its force ; and, while one 
party explored the coast easterly to the Coppermine, 
the other should make its way westerly to Icy Cape, 
or, if possible, Behring's Strait. The project was duly 
sanctioned, and every preparation made to insure suc- 
cess, by building boats, providing scientific instruments, 
and supplying abundant provisions. Besides three 
strong and light boats, better suited to navigation 
among ice than bark canoes, a smaller one, covered 
with Mackintoshes prepared canvas, weighing only 
eighty-five pounds, and named " The Walnut Shell, '^ 
was constructed for the purpose of crossing rivers. 

In the preparations nothing appears to have been 
omitted. Scientific instruments of all kinds, fowling- 



132 FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 

pieces and ammunition, marquees and tents, bedding, 
clothing', and water-proof dresses, flour, arrow-root, 
maccaroni, portable soup, chocolate, essence of coffee, 
sugar, and tea, not omitting an adequate supply of that 
essential article for all North American travellers, 
pemmican, — were supplied. 

The officers under Franklin's orders were his old and 
tried companions and fellow-sufferers in the former 
journey. Dr. Richardson and Lieut. Back, with Mr. 
Kendall, a mate in the navy, and Mr. T. Drummond, a 
naturalist. Four boats, specially prepared for the pur- 
poses of the expedition, were sent out by the Hudson's 
Bay Company's ship. In July, 1825, the party arrived 
at Fort Chipewyan. They reached Great Bear Lake in 
safety, and erected a winter dwelling on its western 
shore, to which the name of Fort Franklin was given. 
To Back and Mr. Dease, an officer in the Hudson's Bay 
Company's service, were intrusted the arrangements for 
their winter quarters. 

From here a small party set out with Franklin down 
the Mackenzie to examine the state of the Polar 
Sea. The sixth day after their departure they passed 
the last of the fir-trees, in latitude 68° 40', these being 
succeeded by stunted willows, which became more 
dwarfish as they approached the sea. After the dis- 
sipation of a thick fog, the expanse of water to the 
northward was so great, that Franklin was inclined to 
think they had reached the sea ; and in this he was 
almost confirmed on reaching the shore of EUice Island, 
where they " were rejoiced at the sea-like appearance 
to the northward." '' This point was observed to be in 
latitude 69° 14', longitude 135° 5t', and forms the north- 
eastern entrance of the main channel of the Mackenzie 
River, which from Slave Lake to this point is one thou- 
sand and forty-five miles, according to our survey." On 



FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 133 

reaching Garry Island, they ascended the summit, and 
from it "the sea appeared in all its majesty, entirely 
free from ice, and without any visible obstruction to its 
navigation, and never was a prospect more gratifying 
than that which lay open to us.'' 

Franklin had left England under affecting circum-- 
stances. His first wife, who was then lying at the 
point of death, with heroic fortitude urged his depart- 
ure at the very day appointed, entreating him, as he 
valued her peace of mind and his own glory, not to 
delay a moment on her account ; that she was fully 
aware that her days were numbered, and that his delay, 
even if she wished it, could only be to close her eyes. 
She died the day after he left her. His feelings maybe 
inferred, but not described, when he had to elevate on 
Grarry Island a silk flag which she had made and given 
hitn as a parting gift, with the instruction that he was 
to hoist it only on reaching the Polar Sea. 

On the 8th of September, Franklin and his party got 
back to their companions on Great Bear Lake, and pre- 
pared to pass the long winter of seven or eight months. 
On 5th October the last swan had passed to the south- 
ward, and on the 11th the last brown duck was noticed. 
On 6th May the first swan was seen, and on the 8th the 
brown ducks reappeared on the lake. The mosses began 
to sprout, and various singing-birds and orioles, along 
with some swifts and white geese, arrived soon after. 

It is remarked by Dr. Eichardson that the singing 
birds, which were silent on the banks of the Bear Lake 
during the day, serenaded their mates at midnight ; at 
which time, however, it was quite light. On 20th 
May the little stream which flowed past the fort burst 
its icy chains, and the laughing geese arrived, to give 
renewed cheerfulness to the lake. Soon after this the 
winter-green began to push forth its flowers ; and under 
12 



134 FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 

the increasing warmth of the sun's rays the whole face of 
nature underwent a deHghtful change. The snow grad- 
ually melted, the ice broke up from the shores of the 
lake, the northern sky became red and luminous at mid- 
night, the dwarf-birch and willows expanded their leaves, 
and by the 3d June the anemones, the tussilago, the 
Lapland rose, and other early plants, were in full flower. 

On the 28th June they embarked upon the Mackenzie ; 
on the 4th July they reached that part where the river 
divides into various channels, and the two parties were 
to pursue different directions. The western branch was 
the route to be pursued by the boats of Franklin's party, 
and the eastern branch by those of Richardson : the 
former to proceed along the northern coast westerly 
as far as Icy Cape, where it was expected to fall in 
with the Blossom ; the latter to examine the coast-line 
between the mouth of the Mackenzie and that of the 
Coppermine. 

The parties now separated. On reaching the mouth 
of the Mackenzie, the western expedition came in con- 
tact with the Esquimaux. Franklin proceeded to open 
a communication with them. At first everything pro- 
ceeded in a friendly manner. Augustus, after deliver- 
ing a present, informed them that if the English suc- 
ceeded in finding a navigable channel for large ships, an 
advantageous trade would be opened. This intimation 
was received with a deafening shout ; the boats were 
in a moment surrounded by nearly three hundred per- 
sons, offering for sale their bows, arrows, and spears, 
with a violence and perseverance which became at last 
troublesome, and Franklin directed the boats to be put 
to seaward. 

At this moment a kayak was upset by one of the oars 
of the Lion, and its unhappy possessor was stuck by 
the accident with his head in the mud, and his heels in 



FRANKLIN'S SECOND LiVND EXPEDITION. 135 

the air. He was instantly extricated, wrapt in a warm 
great-coat, and placed in the boat ; where, though at 
first frightened and angry, he soon became reconciled to 
his situation, and, looking about, discovered many bales 
and other articles which had hitherto been carefully con- 
cealed. His first impulse was to ask for everything he 
saw ; his next, to be indignant that his requests were not 
granted ; and, on joining his companions, he proposed a 
plan for a general attack and pillage of both the boats. 
This scheme was immediately carried into execution ; 
and, though the plunderers at first afiected to be partly 
in sport, matters soon assumed a serious complexion. 

Two of the most powerful men, leaping on board, 
seized Captain Franklin, forced him to sit between them ; 
and when he shook them off, a third took his station in 
front to catch his arm whenever he attempted to raise 
his gun, or lay his hand on the broad dagger which 
hung by his side. During this assault the two boats 
were violently dragged to the shore, and a numerous 
party, stripping to the waist and brandishing their long 
sharp knives, ran to the Reliance, and commenced a reg- 
ular pillage, handing the articles to the women, who, 
ranged in a row behind, quickly conveyed them out of 
sight. No sooner was the bow cleared of one set of 
marauders, than another party commenced their opera- 
tions at the stern. The crew in the Lion were nearly 
overpowered, and their commander disarmed, when all 
at once the natives took to their heels, and concealed 
themselves behind the drift timber and canoes on the 
beach. This sudden panic was occasioned by Captain 
Back, whose boat at this time had been got afloat, com- 
manding his crew to level their muskets. The Lion 
happily floated soon after ; and as both boats pulled off, 
Franklin desired Augustus to inform the Esquimaux that 



136 FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 

he would shoot the first man who ventured to approach 
within musket-range. 

An amicable leave was, however, afterwards taken 
of these people, and on the 13th of July Franklin put 
to sea. On the 27th he came to the mouth of a wide 
river, to which, as it proceeded from the British range 
of mountains, and was near the line of demarkation 
between Great Britain and Eussia, franklin gave the 
name of Clarence. They were now in lat. 10° 5', long. 
143° 55'. The further they advanced westerly the more 
dense became the fogs ; the temperature descended to 
35°, and the gales of wind became more constant; at 
night the water froze ; and, the middle of August having 
arrived, the winter might here be said to have set in ; 
the more early, probably, from the vicinity of the Rocky 
Mountains, and the extensive swampy plains between 
them and the sea. The men had suffered much, and on 
the 18th Franklin set out on his return to the Macken- 
zie, from the extreme point gained, named by him the 
Return Reef, in lat. 10° 24' N., long. 149° SY W. 

About this time, as it afterward appeared, the Blos- 
som's boat, sent by Beechey from Behring's Strait, 
arrived on the coast, on which Franklin observes : 
" Could I have known, or by possibility imagined, that 
a party from the Blossom had been at the distance 
of only one hundred and sixty miles from me, no diffi- 
culties, dangers, or discouraging circumstances, should 
have prevailed on me to return ; but, taking into account 
the uncertainty of all voyages in a sea obstructed by 
ice, I had no right to expect that the Blossom had 
advanced beyond Kotzebue Inlet, or that any party 
from her had doubled the Icy Cape." 

Franklin states the distance traced westerly from 
the mouth of the Mackenzie River to have been three 
hundred and seventy-four miles, along one of the most 



FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 



137 



dreary, miserable, and uninteresting portions of sea-coast 
that can perhaps be found in any part of the world ; and 
in all that space not a harbor exists in which a ship 
could find shelter. 

On the 21st of September the party reached Fort 
Franklin, after a voyage of two thousand and forty-eight 
miles. Here they had the happiness of meeting all 
their friends in safety ; the eastern detachment had 
arrived on the 1st of September, after a most successful 
voyage. 

Richardson's party had been generally favored with 
fine weather. On one occasion a storm compelled them 
to take shelter in Refuge Cove, in lat. 69° 29', which 
they left the following day. At their halting-place on 
the 13th July, the doctor says : "Myriads of mosqui- 
tos, which reposed among the grass, rose in clouds when 
disturbed, and gave us much annoyance. Many snow- 
birds were hatching on the point ; and we saw swans, 
Canada geese, eider, king, Arctic, and surf ducks ; 
several glaucous, sil- 
very, black-headed, 
and ivory gulls, to- 
gether with terns 
and northern divers. 
Some laughing geese 
passed to the north- 
ward in the evening, 
which may be con- 
sidered as a sure in- 
dication of land in 
that direction." On 
the 14th the party 
took shelter from the fog and a heavy gale in a cove 
called Browell Cove, in latitude 10°, longitude 130° 19'. 

With some interruptions, their sail of five hundred 
12* 




EIDER DUCK. 



138 FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 

miles, or nine hundred and two by the coast-line, from 
one river to another, afforded a pleasant voyage, during 
which they added somewhat to the stores of natural 
history, botany, and geology. 

A second winter passed at the fort. The cold was 
intense, the thermometer at one time standing at 58° 
below zero ; but such a temperature even as this may 
be defied, with a weather-tight dwelling, plenty of pro- 
visions, and congenial companions. A series of mag- 
netic observations was commenced ; and, as the locality 
lay on the opposite side of the magnetic pole to that 
along which Parry had sailed in his voyages, some 
interesting results were arrived at. " It appears,'' says 
Franklin, ''that for the same months, at the interval of 
only one year. Captain Parry and myself were making 
hourly observations on two needles, the north ends of 
which pointed almost directly towards each other, 
though our actual distance did not exceed eight hun- 
dred and fifty-five geographical miles ; and while the 
needle of Port Bowen was increasing its westerly direc- 
tion, ours was increasing its easterly, and the contrary 
— the variation being west at Port Bowen, and east at 
Fort Franklin — a beautiful and satisfactory proof of 
the solar influence on the daily variation." 

In addition to magnetism, observations of the aurora 
borealis were also recorded, and the fact established 
that no disturbance of the needle (in that locality, at 
least) takes place during the play of the phenomenon. 
A course of lectures, too, on practical geology, was de- 
livered by Richardson — an eminently useful subject in 
a new district. And, as an instance of what a love for 
science may accomplish, when animated by a perse- 
vering and self-reliant spirit, we must not omit to men- 
tion Mr. Drummond, one of the party, who passed the 
winter alone at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in a 



FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 



139 



small hut erected by himself, where he collected fifteen 
hundred specimens of plants, and two hundred birds and 
quadrupeds, besides insects. These, though points of 
minor interest, when compared with the grand objects 
of the expeditions, serve, nevertheless to connect the 
individuals whose names they distinguish, by many 
links of sympathy and esteem, with unobtrusive thou- 
sands who can admire where they cannot imitate. 




CHAPTER YIII. 

SCORBSBy'S discoveries. CLAVERING. PARRY's POLAR TOTAGE. — 

THE REINDEER. HECLA COVE. BOAT AND SLEDGE EXPEDITION. 

NIGHT TRAVELLING. HUMMOCKS. SOFTENING OP THE ICE. DRIFTING 

OF THE FLOESr HIGHEST POINT REACHED. THE POLAR BEAR. RE- 
TURN TO THE SHIP. HOMEWARD BOUND. 

While Parry, under the auspices of the Britisli gov- 
ernment, was engaged in his second attempt to effect 
the north-west passage, a private adventurer, Mr. 
Scoresby, was making a voyage towards the north 
pole, which must not be passed without notice. As 
early as 1806, this gentleman, who was bred a practical 
whaleman, had, in the pursuit of his calling, penetrated 
to latitude 81° 30', being a degree higher than Phipps 
had attained, and only five hundred geographical miles 
from the pole. In 181T he also made an excursion on 
Jan Mayen's Island. He had, on both occasions, 
made observations and explorations with an intelligent 
and scientific eye, very unusual among those who pur- 
sue a calling so rough and dangerous as whaling. 

At Mitre Cape he ascended to the summit of the sin- 
gular cliff of which it consists, and which is estimated 
to be three thousand feet above the level of the ocean. 
The view is described as sublime : on the east were 
two finely-sheltered bays ; the sea formed an immense 
unruffled expanse to the west, the icebergs rearing their 
fantastic forms, glittering in the sunshine ; the valleys 



SCORESBY'S DISCOVERIES. 



141 




WILD DTJCK. 



were enamelled with beds of snow and ice, and in the 
interior mountains rose beyond mountains, till they 
melted in the distant horizon. The beach of this cape 

was found nearly 
covered with the 
nests of terns, 
ducks, and other 
tenants of the 
Arctic air, in 
some of which 
were young, over 
whom the pa- 
rents kept watch, 
and, by loud cries 
and quick, vehe- 
ment movements, 
sought to defend them against the predatory tribes 
which hovered round. 

But the most important discoveries made by Scoresby 
were in 1822, when he sailed in the ship Baffin, of three 
hundred and twenty-one tons, and fifty men, for the 
whale fishery. In search of a better fishing-ground, he 
was led to the eastern coast of Greenland — a tract 
absolutely unknown, unless at a few points which the 
Dutch had approached ; and it formed a continuous line 
with the shore on which the colonies of old Greenland, 
the subject of much controversy, were supposed to have 
been situated. 

On the 8th of June, in H° 6' north latitude, the coast 
was discovered, extending from north to south about 
ninety miles ; and of which the most northerly point 
was concluded to be that named on the charts Gale 
Hamkes's Land, while the most southerly appeared to 
be Hudson's Hold-with-Hope. Scoresby's ambition, 
however, to mount some of its crags, which no European 



142 SCORESBY'S DISCOVERIES. 

foot had ever trodden, was defeated by an impassable 
barrier of ice ; and a similar one having closed in behind 
him, he was obliged to sail back and forward several 
days through a narrow channel. During this interval 
he had a good opportunity of taking the bearings and 
directions of the principal objects on land. The lati- 
tude, as given in the maps, was tolerably correct, and 
was, indeed, his only guide in tracing the positions ; 
for the longitude, after the most careful observation, 
was found to differ seven degrees from that in the best 
charts, and ten degrees from what is found in those 
usually supplied to the whale-fishers. The country was 
generally mountainous, rugged, and barren, bearing 
much resemblance to Spitzbergen, though less covered 
with snow. 

Scoresby followed the usual system of naming the 
more prominent objects in the territory embraced by his 
discoveries. The two principal bays, or inlets, were 
designated Captain Kater and Sir Walter Scott ; while 
two spacious forelands, or projecting peninsulas — the 
former supposed to be an island — were assigned to 
Dr. Wollaston and Sir Everard Home. Other bays and 
capes were bestowed on some of the author's personal 
friends. He now made a movement eastward, in search 
of whales, of which he found no traces in the vicinity of 
land. 

On the 19th of July the navigators came in view of a 
range of coast of a very bold and peculiar character, 
extending about forty miles. It presented a mountain 
chain from three to four thousand feet high, rising at 
once from the beach in precipitous cliffs, which termi- 
nated in numberless peaks, cones, and pyramids. In 
one instance there appeared to rise six or seven tall 
parallel chimneys, one of which, crowned with two ver- 
tical towers, was called Church Mount. This coast 



SCOKESBY'S DISCOVEKIES. 143 

received the name of Liverpool, while to the mountains 
was given that of Roscoe. The range of shore termi- 
nated at Cape Hodgson ; beyond which, however, steer- 
ing south-west, they descried three other promontories ; 
to these were successively given the appellation of Cape 
Lister, Cape Swainson, and Cape Tobin. 

Here Scoresby landed ; when he found the beach 
much lower than that further to the north, and consist- 
ing, in a great measure, of loose, stony hills. After 
some examination, he came, near Cape Swainson, to an 
enclosure similar to those which the Esquimaux con- 
struct for their summer huts, and within which were 
hollow structures, like bee-hives, such as they use for 
stores. 

Resuming his course at sea, and still holding south- 
westward, he now discovered a spacious inlet, to which, 
in looking upwards, no boundary could be seen. While 
penetrating this opening, he observed another sound 
branching to the northward behind the Liverpool coast, 
and supposed to form it into an island. The opposite 
shore of this entrance was named Jameson's Land, from 
the eminent professor of natural history in Edinburgh. 
Beyond Cape Hooker, the southern point of the coast 
just described, another large inlet stretched towards the 
north, to which was given the name of Basil Hall. It 
had every appearance of converting Jameson's Land 
into an island ; and the coast to the westward of it 
received the name of Milne's Land. Between Cape 
Leslie, constituting the northern point of that coast, 
and Cape Stevenson, on the opposite shore, the original 
opening continued to stretch into the interior, without 
any appearance of a termination. There appeared a 
strong presumption that, instead of the continuous mass 
of land which our maps represent, Greenland composes 
only an immense archipelago of islands. To this great 



144 SCORESBY'S DISCOVERIES. 

inlet, the entrance of which was bounded by Cape Tobin 
on the north, and Cape Brewster on the south, the nav- 
igator gave the name of his father, though posterity will 
probably be apt to associate with himself the name of 
'' Scoresby's Sound/' 

These coasts, especially that of Jameson's Land, were 
found richer in plants and verdure than any others seen 
on this occasion within the Arctic circle, and almost 
meriting the distinction of Greenland. The grass rose 
in one place to a foot in height, and there were mead- 
ows of several acres, which appeared nearly equal to 
any in England. But nowhere could a human being be 
discovered, though there were everywhere traces of 
recent and even frequent inhabitation. At the foot of 
certain cliffs, named after Dr. Neill, were several ham- 
lets of some extent. The huts appear to have been 
winter abodes, not constructed of snow-slabs, like the 
cells of the Esquimaux of Hudson's Bay, but resembling 
those of the Greenlanders, dug deep in the ground, 
entered by a long winding passage or funnel, and roofed 
with a wooden frame overlaid with moss and earth. 
The mansion had thus the appearance of a slight hillock. 
Near the hamlets were excavations in the earth, serving 
as graves, where implements of hunting, found along 
with the bones of the deceased, proved the prevalence 
here of the general belief of savage nations, that the 
employments of man in the future life will exactly 
resemble those of the present. 

On emerging from this large sound, and proceeding 
southward, Scoresby discovered another continuous 
range of coast. 

Disappointed as to any appearance of whales on this 
coast, he again steered to the northward, where ice- 
bergs surrounded him, amounting at one place to the 
number of five hundred. This course brought him in a 



SCORESBY'S DISCOVERIES. 145 

few days within sight of lands stretching still higher 
than those recently surveyed, and connecting them with 
the others which he had first discovered. There ap- 
peared two large territories, seemingly insular, to 
which were given the names of Canning and Traill ; and 
between them was a most spacious inlet, named Sir 
Humphrey Davy. He landed on Traill Island, and with 
incredible toil clambered to the top of a hill, where he 
hoped to have found a small plain containing a few 
specimens of Arctic vegetation ; but this summit was 
steeper than the most narrowly-pitched roof of a house ; 
and, had not the opposite side been a little smoother, 
he would have found much difficulty in sliding down. 
Beyond this island, and separated from it by a consider- 
able inlet, named after Lord Mountnorris, was another 
coast, the pointed extremity of which received the name 
of Parry. This promontory being at no great distance 
from Cape Freycinct, which had been seen in the first 
survey, there was thus completed the observation of a 
range of four hundred miles of coast, formerly known 
only by the most imperfect notices, and which might, 
therefore, be strictly considered as a new discovery. 

Scoresby afterwards approached more closely to Can- 
ning Island, and penetrated a sound between it and the 
main, connected apparently with Hurry's Inlet. He 
would have been happy to examine more of the Green- 
land coast, having on one occasion had a fair prospect 
of being able to run southward to Cape Farewell ; but 
the ship was not his own, and his duty to his employers 
compelled him to turn in another direction. He had 
hitherto met with much disappointment ; and, the sea- 
son being far advanced, he was apprehensive of being 
obliged to return with a deficient cargo. But, on the 
15th of August, numerous whales appeared round the 
ship ; of these five were struck, and three taken, which 
13 



146 CLAVERING. 

at once rendered the ship fulJrfished, and placed him 
among" the most successful adventurers of the year. 
He could, therefore, return with satisfactory feelings ; 
and the pleasure of the voyage homeward was only 
alloyed by the occurrence of a violent storm off Lewis, 
in which Sam Chambers, one of the most esteemed and 
active of his crew, was washed overboard. 

To these discoveries some additions were made next 
year by Captain Clavering, who was employed by the 
British Admiralty to convey Captain Sabine to different 
stations in the Arctic Sea, for the purpose of making 
observations on the comparative length of the pendu- 
lum, as affected by the principle of attraction. 

Clavering sailed on the 3d of May, 1823, and on the 
2d of June arrived at Hammerfest, in Norway, where he 
landed the philosopher with his tents and instruments. 
The observations being completed, he weighed anchor 
on the 23d, reached the northern coast of Spitzbergen, 
and fixed on a small island between Yogel Sang and 
Cloven Cliff for further operations. 

He left this coast on the 22d of July, and steered for 
the eastern shores of Greenland, of which he came in 
view on the 5th of August. The scene appeared the 
most desolate he had ever beheld. The mountains rose 
to the height of several thousand feet, without a vestige 
of vegetation, or the appearance of any living creature 
on the earth or in the air. Even the dreary waste of 
Spitzbergen appeared a paradise to this. He landed 
his passenger and the scientific apparatus on two islands 
detached from the eastern shore of the continent, which 
he called the Pendulum Islands, and of which the out- 
ermost point is marked by a bold headland rising to the 
height of three thousand feet. 

While Sabine was employed in his peculiar researches, 
the other surveyed a part of the coast which lay to the 



CLAVERING. 147 

northward, being the first which Scoresby saw. It lay 
at some distance, with an icy barrier interposed ; but 
was found indented with deep and spacious bays, sus- 
pected even to penetrate so far as to convert all this 
range of coast into a cluster of islands. The inlet 
which the former navigator had assigned to Sir Walter 
Scott was believed by Clavering to be that discovered 
by the Dutch mariner, Gale Hamkes ; but we have not 
ventured to remove this last from the more northerly 
position preferred by the scientific whaler. Other 
openings, which occurred in proceeding towards the 
north, were named by the captain Foster's Bay, Ardin- 
caple, and Roseneath Inlets ; and he saw bold and high 
land still stretching in this direction as far as the 
seventy-sixth degree of latitude. 

In regard to the natives this commander was more 
fortunate than his predecessor, who saw only their 
deserted habitations. On landing at a point on the 
southern coast of Sir Walter Scott's Inlet, he received 
intelligence of Esquimaux having been seen at the dis- 
tance of a mile, and hastened thither with one of his 
officers. The natives, on seeing them, immediately ran 
to the top of some rocks ; but the English advanced, 
made friendly signs, deposited a mirror and a pair of 
worsted mittens at the foot of the precipice, and then 
retired. The savages came down, took these articles, 
and carried them away to the place of their retreat ; but 
they soon allowed the strangers to approach them, 
though their hands, when shaken, were found to trem- 
ble violently. By degrees confidence was established, 
and they conducted the visitors to their tent, five feet 
high, and twelve in circumference, composed of wood 
and whalebone. Their aspect and conformation, their 
boats and implements, exactly corresponded to those 
observed by Parry and Lyon in Hudson's Bay. A child, 



148 PAKRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 

after being diligently cleared of its thick coating of dirt 
and oil, was found to have a tawny, copper-colored 
skin. The natives were astonished and alarmed beyond 
measure by the effect of fire-arms. A seal being shot, 
one of them was sent to fetch it. He examined it all 
over till he found the hole made by the ball, when, 
thrusting his finger into it, he set up a shout of aston- 
ishment, dancing and capering in the most extravagant 
manner. Another was prevailed upon to fire a pistol ; 
but instantly, on hearing the report, started and ran 
back into the tent. 

The observations were not completed till the begin- 
ning of September, when the season was too late to 
allow Clavering to gratify his wish of making a run to 
the northw'ard. Nor did he extricate himself from the 
ice without some severe shocks ;' but nevertheless, after 
spending six weeks at Drontheim, he entered the 
Thames about the middle of December. 

After the abortive voyage of Buchan and Franklin, in 
1818, no further attempt was made to reach the pole in 
ships ; but a plan was devised to accomplish that object 
in vehicles drawn over the frozen surface of the ocean 
— a scheme first suggested by Scoresby, who endeav- 
ored to prove that such a journey was neither so vision- 
ary nor so very perilous as it might appear to those 
who were unacquainted with the Arctic regions. 

His suggestions did not, for a considerable time, 
attract attention ; but at length Captain Parry, after his 
three brilliant voyages to the north-west, finding reason 
to suspect that his further progress in that direction 
was hopeless, turned his thoughts to the probability of 
penetrating over the frozen sea to the pole. Combining 
Scoresby's ideas with his own observations, and with a 
series of reflections derived by Captain Franklin from 
his extensive experience, he submitted to the Lords of 



PAERY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 149 

the Admiralty the plan of an expedition over the polar 
ice. Their lordships, having referred this proposal to 
the council and committee of the Royal Society, and 
received a favorable report as to the advantages which 
science might derive from such a journey, applied them- 
selves with their usual alacrity to supply the captain 
with everything which could assist him in this bold 
undertaking. 

The Hecla was employed to carry him to the northern 
coast of Spitzbergen, where she was to be secured in a 
safe harbor or cove ; and with her were sent two boats, 
to be dragged or navigated, according to circumstances, 
from that island to the pole. These boats being framed 
of ash and hickory, covered with water-prpof canvas, 
over which were successive planks of fir and oak, with 
a sheet of stout felt interposed, united the greatest pos- 
sible degree of strength and elasticity. The interior 
was made capacious, and flat-floored, somewhat as in 
troop-boats ; and a runner, attached to each side of the 
keel, fitted them to be drawn along the ice like a sledge. 
Wheels were also taken on board, in case their use 
should be found practicable. 

The adventurers started on the 2'7th of March, 182*7, 
and on the 19th of April entered the fine harbor of 
Hammerfest, in Norway, where they remained two or 
three weeks, and took on board eight reindeer, with a 
quantity of picked moss for their provender. Departing 
on the 11th of May, they soon found themselves among 
the ice, and met a number of whale-ships. On the 13th 
they were in view of Hakluyt's Headland, when the 
captain endeavored to push his way to the north-east, 
in the track of Phipps. The vessel, however, was soon 
completely beset, and even enclosed in a large floe, which 
carried her slowly along with it. 

As every day was now an irretrievable loss, Parry 
13* 



150 PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 

became impatient in the extreme, and formed a plan to 
push off northward, leaving the ship to find a harbor for 
herself, where he trusted, on his return, to trace her 
out. But the survey of the route in the proposed di- 
rection was most discouraging. In consequence of 
some violent agitation the preceding season, the ice had 
been piled up in innumerable hummocks, causing the 
sea to resemble a stone-mason^ s yard, except that it 
contained masses ten times larger. This state of the 
surface, which would have rendered it impossible to 
drag the boats more than a mile in the day, was found 
to prevail for a considerable space with little interrup- 
tion. 

The current, meantime, continued to carry the ship, 
with the floe to which she was fastened, slowly to the 
eastward, till it brought her into shoal water. Parry 
lowered a boat, and found some heavy masses of ice 
attached to the bottom in six fathoms ; after which he 
felt it quite out of the question to leave her with a 
diminished crew, and exposed to so much danger, aris- 
ing from the combined difficulty of unsurveyed ground 
and ice. The conclusion was therefore irresistibly 
forced upon his mind, that a secure harbor must be 
sought for the vessel before setting out with the boats. 
No choice was then left but to steer back for the coast 
of Spitzbergen, where he unexpectedly lighted on a 
very convenient recess, named by him Hecla Cove ; and 
it proved to be part of the bay to which an old Dutch 
chart gives the name of Treurenberg. 

The animals met with here during the Hecla' s stay 
were principally reindeer, bears, foxes, kittiwakes, 
glaucous and ivory gulls, tern, eider-ducks, and a few 
grouse. Looms and rotges were numerous in the offing. 
Seventy reindeer were killed, chiefly very small, and, 
until the middle of August, not in good condition. 



PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 



151 




REINDEER. 



They were usually met with in herds of from six or 
eight to twenty, and were most abundant on the west 
and north sides of the bay. Three bears were killed. 
The vegetation was tolerably abundant. 

The neighborhood of this bay, like most of the north- 
ern shores of Spitzbergen, appears to have been much 
visited by the Dutch at a very early period. There are 
thirty graves on a point of land on the north side of the 
bay. The bodies are usually deposited in an oblong 
wooden coffin, which, on account of the difficulty of 
digging the ground, is not buried, but merely covered 
by large stones ; and a board is generally placed near 
the head, having, either cut or painted upon it, the 
name of the deceased, with those of his ship and com- 
mander, and the month and year of his burial. Several 
of these were fifty or sixty years old ; one bore the date 
of IT 38 ; and another, which Parry found on the beach 



152 PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 

to the eastward of Hecla Cove, that of 1690 ; the in- 
scription distinctly appearing in prominent relief, occa- 
sioned by the preservation of the wood by the paint, 
while the unpainted part had decayed around it. 

It was now the 20th of June, and the best of the 
season had been spent in beating backwards and for- 
wards on these ice-bound shores ; he therefore resolved, 
without further delay, to prosecute the main object of 
his enterprise ; and, though scarcely hoping to reach the 
pole, he determined, at all events, to push as far north as 
possible. He took with him seventy-one days' provi- 
sion, consisting of pemmican, biscuit, cocoa, and rum. 
The spirit of wine, as the most portable and concen- 
trated fuel, was alone used for that purpose. There 
were provided changes of warm clothing, thick fur 
dresses for sleeping in, and strong Esquimaux boots. 
The reindeer, and also the wheels, were given up at 
once, as altogether useless in the present rugged state 
of the ice ; but four sledges, constructed out of the 
native snow-shoes, proved very convenient for dragging 
along the baggage. 

On the 22d of June the expeditionary party quitted 
the ship, and betook themselves to the boats, amid the 
cheers of their associates. Although all the shores 
were still frozen, they had an open sea, calm and smooth 
as a mirror, through which, with their loaded vessels, 
they advanced slowly, but agreeably. After proceeding 
thus for about eighty miles, they reached, not, as 
they had hoped, the main body of the ice, but a surface 
intermediate between ice and water. This could neither 
be walked nor sailed over, but was to be passed by the 
two methods alternatel}^ ; and it was on such a strange 
and perilous plain that they had to land, in order to 
commence their laborious journey toward the pole. 

Parry describes in an interesting manner the singular 



PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 153 

mode of travelling which they were compelled to adopt. 
The first step was to convert night into day — to begin 
their journey in the evening, and end it in the morning. 
Thus, while they had quite enough of light, they 
avoided the snow-glare, and the blindness which it 
usually produces ; besides, the ice was drier and harder 
beneath them ; and they enjoyed the greatest warmth 
when it was most wanted, during the period of sleep, 
though they were a little annoyed by dense and fre- 
quent fogs. Thus their notions of night and day became 
inverted. Several of the men declared that they never 
knew night from day, during the whole excursion. They 
rose in what they called the morning, but which was 
really late in the evening, and, having performed their 
devotions, breakfasted on warm cocoa and biscuit ; then, 
drawing on their boots, usually either wet or hard 
frozen, and which, though perfectly dried, would have 
been equally soaked in fifteen minutes, the party trav- 
elled five or six hours, and a little after midnight stopped 
to dine. They next accomplished an equal journey in 
what was called the afternoon ; and in the evening, that 
is, at an advanced hour in the morning, halted as for the 
night. After applying themselves to obtain rest and 
comfort, they put on dry stockings and fur boots, 
cooked something warm for supper, smoked their pipes, 
told over their exploits, and, forgetting the toils of the 
day, enjoyed an interval of ease and gayety ; then, well 
wrapped in their fur cloaks, they lay down in the boat, 
rather too close together, perhaps, but with very tolera- 
ble comfort ; and in due time the sound of a bugle 
roused them to their breakfast of cocoa, and to a repe- 
tition of the same arduous duties. 

The progress for several days was most slow and 
laborious. The floes were small, exceedingly rough, 
and intersected by lanes of water, which could not be 



154 PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 

crossed without unloading the boats. It was commonly 
necessary to convey these and the stores by two stages ; 
and the sailors, being obliged to return for the second 
portion, had to go three times over the same ground. 
Sometimes they were obliged to make three stages, and 
thus to pass over it five times. 

There fell as much rain as they had experienced dur- 
ing the whole course of seven years in the lower lati- 
tude. A great deal of the ice over which they travelled 
was formed into numberless irregular needle-like crys- 
tals, standing upwards, and pointed at both ends. The 
horizontal surface of this part had sometimes the ap- 
pearance of greenish velvet, while the vertical sections, 
when in a compact state, resembled the most beautiful 
satin spar, and asbestos when going to pieces. These 
peculiar wedges, it was supposed, were produced by 
the drops of rain piercing through the superficial ice. 
The needles at first afforded tolerably firm footing ; but, 
becoming always more loose and movable as the sum- 
mer advanced, they at last cut the boots and feet as if 
they had been pen-knives. Occasionally, too, there 
arose hummocks so elevated and rugged that the boats 
could only be borne over them, in a direction almost 
perpendicular, by those vigorous operations called " a 
standing pull and a bowline haul.'' 

The result of all this was, that a severe exertion of 
five or six hours did not usually produce a progress of 
above a mile and a half or two miles, and that in a wind- 
ing direction ; so that, after having entered upon the 
ice on the 24th of June, in latitude 81° 13', they found 
themselves on the 29th only in 81° 23', having thus 
made only about eight miles of direct northing. Parry 
soon relinquished all hope of reaching the pole ; how- 
ever, it was resolved to push on as far as possible ; and 
the party coming at length to somewhat smoother ice 



PAERY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 155 

and larger floes, made rather better progress. While 
the boats were landing on one of these, the commander 
and Lieut. Ross usually pushed on to the other end, to 
ascertain the best course. On reaching the extremity, 
they commonly mounted the largest hummock, whence 
they beheld a sight of which nothing could exceed the 
dreariness. The eye rested solely upon ice, and a sky 
hid in dense and dismal fogs. 

One warm day, two flies on the ice were regarded 
with a degree of attention that would have been ludi- 
crous under other circumstances ; and equally important 
was the sight of an aphis horealis, in a languid state, a 
hundred miles away from land. Amid this scene of 
inanimate desolation, the view of a passing bird, or of 
ice in any peculiar shape, excited an intense interest, 
which they smiled to recollect ; but they were princi- 
pally cheered by viewing the two boats in the distance, 
the moving figures of the men winding with their sledges 
among the hummocks, and by hearing the sound of 
human voices, which broke the silence of this frozen 
wilderness. The rain and the increasing warmth of the 
season, indeed, gradually softened the ice and snow, 
but this only caused the travellers to sink deeper at 
every step. At one place they sank repeatedly three 
feet, and required three hours to make a hundred yards. 
Having attained 82° 40', they began to hold it as a fixed 
point that their efibrts would be crowned with success 
so far as to reach the eighty-third parallel. This hope 
seemed converted into certainty when, on the 22d, they 
had travelled seventeen miles, the greater proportion of 
which was directly north. But there now occurred an 
unfavorable change, which bafiSed all their exertions. 

Down to the 19th, the wind had blown steadily from 
the south, which, though without aiding them much, 
had at least checked the usual movement of the ice in 



156 PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 

that direction. On the last of these days, however, a 
breeze sprang up from the north, which opened, indeed, 
a few lanes of water ; but this, it was feared, could not 
compensate for the manner in which it must cause the 
loosened masses of ice, with the travellers upon them, 
to drift to the southward. This effect was soon found 
to take place to an extent still more alarming than had 
been at first anticipated ; for, instead of ten or twelve 
miles, which they reckoned themselves to have achieved 
northward on the 22d, they were found not to have 
made quite four. This most discouraging fact was at 
first concealed from the sailors, who only remarked that 
they were very long in getting to the eighty-third degree. 

The expedition was now fast approaching the utmost 
limits of animal life. During their long journey of the 
22d, they only saw two seals, a fish, and a bird. On 
the 24th only one solitary rotge was heard ; and it might 
be presumed that, from thence to the pole, all would be 
a uniform scene of silence and solitude. The adventur- 
ers pushed on without hesitation beyond the realms of 
life ; but now, after three days of bad travelling, when 
their reckoning gave them ten or eleven miles of prog- 
ress, observation showed them to be four miles south of 
the position which they occupied on the evening of the 
22d — the drifting of the snow-fields having in that time 
carried them fourteen miles backward. 

This was too much ; and to reach even the eighty- 
third degree, though only twenty miles distant, was 
now beyond all reasonable hope. To ask the men to 
undergo such unparalleled toil and hardship, with the 
danger of their means being exhausted, while an invisi- 
ble power undid what their most strenuous labors 
accomplished, was contrary to the views of their con- 
siderate commander. In short, he determined that they 
should take a day of rest, and then set out on their 



PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 157 

return. This resolution was communicated to the crew, 
who, though deeply disappointed at having achieved so 
little, acquiesced in the necessity, and consoled them- 
selves with the idea of having gone further north than 
any previous expedition of which there was a well- 
authenticated record. 

The furthest point of latitude reached was on the 23d, 
and was, probably, to 82° 45'. *' At the extreme point 
of our journey,'^ says Parry, '' our distance from the 
Hecla*^vas only one hundred and seventy-two miles in a 
S. 8° W. direction. To accomplish this distance we 
had traversed, by our reckoning, two hundred and 
ninety-two miles, of which about one hundred were per- 
formed by water previously to our entering the ice. 
As we travelled by far the greater part of our distance 
on the ice three, and not unfrequently five, times over, 
we may safely multiply the length of the road by two 
and a half; so that our whole distance, on a very mod- 
erate calculation, amounted to five hundred and eighty 
geographical, or six hundred and sixty-eight statute 
miles, being nearly sufficient to have reached the pole 
in a direct line. Up to this period we had been par- 
ticularly fortunate in the preservation of our health.'' 
Their day of rest (July 27th), before starting to return, 
was one of the pleasantest they had experienced upon 
the ice ; the thermometer only from 31° to 36° in the 
shade, and 3*7° in the sun ; no bottom with five hundred 
fathoms of line. 

The return was equally laborious as the going out, 
and in some respects more unpleasant, from the increas- 
ing softness of the ice and snow — depriving them of 
confidence in any spot on which they placed their boats 
or persons, and often sinking two or three feet in an 
instant. On the 1st of August some recent bear-tracks 
were seen, and, soon after, Bruin himself appeared ; but, 
11 



158 



PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 



though attempts were made to draw him within gun- 
shot, he escaped unharmed. But, on the 4th, a fat bear 




POLAR BEAR. 



was shot by Lieut. Koss ; and '' the men were frying 
steaks, during the whole day, over a large fire made of 
the blubber." To some the consequence of their indul- 
gence was an indigestion. On the 10th another bear 
was killed ; '' and our encampment,'' says Parry, 
" became so like an Esquimaux establishment that we 
were obliged to shift our place upon the floe in the 
course of the day, for the sake of cleanliness and com- 
fort.'' 

At length, on the 11th of August, Parry and his party 
heard the sound of the surge breaking against the exte- 
rior margin of the great icy field. They were soon 
launched on the open sea, and reached Table Island, 
where a supply of bread had been deposited ; but Bruin 



PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE. 



159 



had discovered it, and devoured the whole. They found, 
however, some accommodations, while the stores left 
at the Warden Island were still quite undisturbed. On 
the 21st the navigators arrived in Hecla Cove, from 
whence, soon afterwards, they sailed for England. 

Such was the result of the first and only attempt to 
penetrate to the pole over the frozen surface of the deep. 
All the energy and hardihood of British seamen were 
exerted to the utmost, without making even an approach 
towards the fulfilment of their intention ; yet there 
seems nothing in the details just given to deter from 
the enterprise, as impossible, or even to render it very 
unfeasible. The unfavorable issue was evidently owing 
to the advanced season of the year, when the thaw and 
consequent dissolution of the ice had made great prog- 
ress, and all the materials of the great northern fioor 
were broken up. 




CHAPTER IX. 

Ross's SECOND VOYAGE. HOLSTEINBORG. DISCO ISLAND. — LANCASTER 

SOUND. BOOTHIA. — DISCOVERY OP THE EXJRy'S STORES. — DANGER- 
OUS NAVIGATION. — PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING. VISIT FROM 

ESQUIMAUX. — EXCURSION. SECOND WINTER IN THE ICE. — THE MAG- 
NETIC POLE. — THIRD AND FOURTH WINTER. — ABANDONMENT OP THE 
VICTORY. — MEETING WITH A WHALER. 

Next in chronological order is the expedition equipped 
at the cost of Sir Felix Booth, and conducted by Captain 
Eoss, and his nephew, Commander (afterwards Sir James) 
Ross. They sailed in May, 1829, in the Victory, a 
vessel fitted with a steam-engine, in addition to her 
sails, so as to be able to navigate in calm weather, or 
in baffling winds. The object of the voyage was to 
search for the north-west passage, as Parry had done 
before, by some opening leading out of Regent's Inlet. 

On the 22d of July they entered a bay which opened 
into two magnificent inlets, bordered by rocks of impos- 
ing form ; and every spot, not absolutely a precipice, 
was covered with such bright verdure as to justify the 
appellation of Greenland. In sailing upwards, the unex- 
pected appearance of a Danish flag surprised the crew, 
and they learned that they were now near a settle- 
ment belonging to that nation, called Holsteinborg. 
The governor had seen the masts above the rocks, and, 
apprehensive of their being those of a vessel in distress, 
kindly sent an offer of aid. The party were immediately 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 161 

conducted to the village, where they had a hospitable 
reception, with entertainment such as they little ex- 
pected on those dreary shores. 

They here found a disabled vessel, and from it replen- 
ished their stores and spars. The provisions were raised 
to their full complement. Some boots and gloves were 
obtained from the natives, and the governor made a 
useftil present of six Esquimaux dogs. 

On the 26th the discoverers sailed to the northward ; 
and on the morning of the 28th the stupendous moun- 
tains of Disco Island, long enveloped in mist, burst on 
their view, only a few miles distant. The range nearest 
the shore was entirely free from snow, and the interior 
hills were but partially covered. Hare Island was 
almost equally clear ; and, though forty icebergs were 
observed, yet, as the navigators approached the latitude 
of H°, near to where the Hecla and Fury had been 
beset in 1824, not a vestige of ice was perceived. They 
might have fancied themselves sailing on the summer 
seas of England, or even of the Mediterranean ; the 
men threw off their jackets, and worked in their shirts, 
without shoes or stockings. They had several times 
recourse to the engine, though, from practical defects, 
it never enabled them to sail above a mile and a half an 
hour ; and it was subsequently thrown overboard, as a 
useless encumbrance. 

On the 6th of August, a thick fog having dispersed, 
the coast was suddenly displayed, with all its highlands, 
among which Cape Byam Martin was conspicuous, cov- 
ered with snow. On reaching the entrance of Lancaster 
Sound, and reverting to the blame imputed to him for 
not having explored it, the captain observes that, from 
the deceptive appearances presented by bays and inlets, 
similar mistakes had been made by Cook, and other 
navigators of the greatest skill. No opinion differing 
14* 



162 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

from his had been expressed by any one of his officers, 
who, if they entertained any such, were unquestionably 
bound to have stated it. The ice, moreover, lay then 
so thick that he could have penetrated but a few miles 
further. 

Now, however, he sailed through the middle of the 
strait, perceiving scarcely any trace of ice or snow, 
unless on the tops of the lofty mountains. The ther- 
mometer stood at 40°, while the sensible heat was so 
much greater that they felt it agreeable to dine without 
a fire, and with half the skylight removed. For two 
days they made only a slow and laborious progress, by 
the aid of steam ; but, on the 9th, a welcome breeze 
sprang up from the east, and, all sail being set, on the 
10th they passed Cape York, after which the land begins 
to turn southward, and, with the opposite coast of North 
Somerset (Boothia), forms the broad opening of Prince 
Regent's Inlet. This being the channel by which Ross 
hoped to accomplish his passage, he immediately steered 
across, and reached the western shore on the afternoon 
of the 11th, between Cape Seppings and El win Bay. 

In sailing southward along this coast, some heavy 
gales were encountered ; and the ice having been broken 
off in the various forms of streams, packs, and bergs, 
the full difficulties of Arctic navigation began to be 
experienced. These were increased by the near ap- 
proach to the magnetic pole, so that the compass 
ceased to traverse ; and the bearings could be ascer- 
tained only by observations on the sun, which was often 
obscured by heavy fogs. The navigators made their 
way, however, and on the 12th descried the place of 
the Fury's wreck, with the poles of the tents standing. 
They hastened, with intense interest, to examine this 
spot. The hull of the ship, which was left on the 
beach, had disappeared, without even a vestige remain- 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 163 

ing. The moving masses of ice had either carried it 
out in a body, or broken it into fragments and scattered 
it as drift-wood over the surrounding sea. But it was 
an ample compensation to find that the canisters of 
preserved provisions, after being exposed during four 
years, were in as perfect condition as if they had been 
newly prepared. The tightness of these vessels had 
prevented the bear from smelling the rich feast they 
contained for him, and to which otherwise he would 
soon have forced his way. The wine, spirits, sugar, 
bread, flour, and cocoa, were, with little exception, 
equally good, and the sails were found in complete pres- 
ervation. After taking in all the provisions they could 
conveniently stow, raising their stock to two years and 
three months' supply, the accumulated pile seemed 
scarcely diminished. Here, also, they procured a store 
of coal. 

Crossing now the broad mouth of Cresswell Bay, they 
reached, on the 15th of August, a cape to which the 
name of Garry has been attached, the furthest point 
seen by Parry. The land trended in a south-south-west 
direction, which, with few variations, it continued to 
follow. Deprived of all aid from the compass, and often 
enveloped in fogs, they worked their way slowly, amid 
many diflSculties and frequent dangers, being obliged 
to steer merely according to the direction which the 
wind, or even the floating ice, had, in the last clear 
interval, been observed to pursue. While mountains 
of ice were tossing around them on every side, they 
were often forced to seek safety by mooring themselves 
to these formidable masses, and drifting with them, 
sometimes forward, sometimes backward. In this man- 
ner, on one occasion, no less than nineteen miles were 
lost in a few hours ; at other times they underwent fre- 
quent and severe shocks, yet escaped any serious dam- 



164 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

age. Ross conceives that his little bark, merely by its 
moderate draught of water, was much better fitted for 
such a navigation than the larger vessels employed in 
previous expeditions, and that those . of Parry would 
have been shattered to pieces by the rocks over which 
the Victory was carried in safety. 

On several points of this coast they observed Esqui- 
maux tents, — at one place twenty in number, — but none 
of the natives. Many whales appeared on the surface 
of the water close to them, without showing any appre- 
hension of man. 

Among the leading features of the coast was Brent- 
ford Bay, of considerable extent, with some fine harbors, 
thirty miles beyond Cape Garry. Here the captain 
landed, displayed his colors, and, drinking the king's 
health, took possession, in his majesty's name, of the 
land, to which he gave the name of Boothia. 

Under all impediments, in the course of August and 
September, he worked his way along three hundred 
miles of undiscovered coast, and to within two hundred 
and eighty miles of the point which Franklin had 
reached. Here the land, taking a westerly direction, 
seemed to afford the fair promise of a passage between 
the country now surveyed and the continent of America. 
But, by the end of September, snow began to fall thick ; 
the thermometer sank far below the freezing-point, while 
ice in large masses was closing around them. They 
therefore considered themselves fortunate when, in a 
spacious bay between a rocky island and two icebergs, 
they found a station in Felix Harbor, in which, after 
due arrangements, they could reckon on passing the 
dreary season in security. 

On the Tth of October, by sawing through the ice, 
the vessel was placed in the position where it could be 
most advantageously lodged for the winter. On the 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 165 

8th, there appeared no longer an atom of clear water ; 
and, except some occasional points of rock, "nothing 
but one dazzling and monotonous, dull and wearisome, 
extent of snow was visible.'^ The temperature, which 
had been ranging between 10° and 22°, rapidly fell, 
and, on the night of the 20th, descended as low as 9° 
under zero, or 41° below the freezing-point, and, before 
the end of the month, was at — 16°. 

In preparing for the gloom and rigor of this long 
winter, Ross made some improvements even upon the 
admirable arrangements of Parry. The upper deck 
having been covered two feet and a half deep with 
snow, it was trodden down to the consistence of solid 
ice, and sand spread over it, till it resembled a rolled 
gravel-walk. It was then roofed with canvas, which 
was conducted over the sides till it united with a bank 
of snow that had been formed around the vessel, thus 
completely fencing it in on every side. The vapor from 
the steam-kitchen and oven, instead of being allowed to 
spread through the cabins, was conveyed by apertures 
in the upper deck, over which were placed to receive it 
iron tanks, with the open side downwards, where it 
soon froze, and the ice was cleared out once a week. 
By this plan the apartments were preserved perfectly 
dry, and it was not necessary, as formerly, to keep them 
up to the temperature of 10°, in order to prevent the 
vapor from freezing on their sides ; that of 45° was 
found quite sufficient for health and comfort, and a 
great saving of fuel was in consequence effected. Two 
small ante-chambers were formed, and in the outer one 
such of the men as had been exposed to the atmos- 
phere were required to leave the clothes on which snow 
had fallen. The air necessary to produce combustion 
was introduced by a copper pipe direct to the fireplace, 
where it was immediately warmed, and, instead of chill- 



166 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

ing, served to heat and dry the room. The strength 
and spirits of the crew were supported by regular meals 
and constant occupation. Divine service was duly per- 
formed, and religious instruction dispensed at a school 
held every Sunday evening. On the other nights a 
school also was attended. 

The stock of provisions, on examination, was found 
sufficient for two years and ten months at full allowance, 
a quantity which could easily be managed so as to last 
three years. Fuel was equally abundant. The only 
article deficient was spirits, of which there was only 
one year's full supply ; but this want the commander 
by no means regretted, being satisfied that their habitual 
use impaired the strength of the seaman, diminished his 
power of enduring cold, and rendered him more liable to 
scurvy. He was gratified, therefore, when the crew 
cheerfully consented to their being withheld, unless on 
special occasions ; and he considers this circumstance 
as having remarkably contributed to the preservation 
of their health. 

Traces of Esquimaux had been observed on different 
parts of the coast, but none had been hitherto seen. 
At length, on the morning of the 9th of January, 1830, 
a party were discovered. Ross immediately proceeded 
to the spot, upon which they retreated, but soon re- 
turned with a body of their companions, ranged in a 
line of ten in front and three deep, one man being 
detached, who appeared to be sitting in a sledge. The 
captain, having sent for his nephew and some of the 
crew, desired them to remain behind, while he walked 
toward the Esquimaux, who were armed with spears 
and knives. He hailed them by the well-known national 
salutation, Tima ! tima 1 which was shouted by them in 
return. The navigators then advanced, and, throwing 
away their guns, called out, Aja, tima! upon which 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 167 

the others tossed their knives and spears in the air, 
repeating the shout, Aja! and extending their hands to 
show that they had now no weapons. As they stood 
still, however, the discoverers approached, and em- 
braced all those in the front line, stroking their dress, 
and receiving in their turn this customary greeting. 
Their gratification was testified by laughing_, clamor, and 
strange gestures. Thus full confidence was at once 
established between the two parties. 

Next day the discoverers visited this people at their 
own village, which consisted of twelve snow huts, con- 
structed in the same manner as those observed by 
Parry. This tribe were thought, on the whole, to be 
cleaner and better dressed than those more to the north- 
ward ; besides, they kept a store of seal and reindeer 
buried in the snow — a precaution not before noticed 
among any Esquimaux. 

While the British remained on these shores, they 
held frequent intercourse with this and other parties of 
natives. Some of the places about Repulse Bay being 
named and described, they showed an intimate acquaint- 
ance with them, stating that they had recently journeyed 
from that quarter. Two of them, Tulluahiu and Ikmal- 
lik, drew a sketch of the line of coast by which they had 
travelled, and this was amended by a learned lady, Tir- 
iksiu. The general result proved to be, that between 
the present station and Repulse Bay there intervened a 
very extensive gulf, of which the limits were Melville 
Peninsula on the east, the American coast on the south, 
and the country in which they now were, on the west. 

The grand question, whether there was any navigable 
opening further westward, could not be then ascertained, 
though they had reason to believe that, if there was, it 
must be very narrow. The strongest interest, however, 
was excited by the accounts given by another party of 



168 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

a great sea lying to the westward, and of a strait which 
it was hoped might lead into it. On the 5th of April, 
therefore, when the rigor of winter had somewhat 
abated, Commander Eoss, with Mr. Blanky, the chief 
mate, and two native guides, undertook an expedition 
to explore it. The weather being still very inclement, 
they were frequently obliged to pause and seek refuge 
from the drift, when the Esquimaux in half an hour 
erected snow huts, which afforded tolerable shelter. 
Unluckily the fire necessary for heat and light, melting 
the walls of this frail tenement, enveloped them in 
moisture, to avoid which they were obliged to creep into 
their fur bags. 

After a difficult journey of three days, they reached a 
bay facing the westward, and, on proceeding a short dis- 
tance inland to the south and south-east, discovered a 
very extensive lake, called by the natives Nei-tyel-le, 
whence a broad river flowed into the bay. On their 
return to the coast, the guides pointed out a lofty cape, 
beyond which there was said to be a vast sea, the termi- 
nation of which could not be descried. They declared, 
however, that a tract of land, or isthmus, connecting the 
territory on which they stood with the continent of 
America, would render it impossible for the vessel to 
reach the western sea in this direction, or otherwise 
than by a channel considerably north of her present 
station. 

The journey so far had issued only in disappointment. 
They learned that, on the coast nearest them, facing 
the eastward, there was a place called Shagavoke, where 
the water rushed through a narrow strait with extraor- 
dinary rapidity. Hence arose hopes that this tide 
might come from the opposite sea, and afford a channel 
through which the ship could be worked. But, on 
examination, this idea proved fallacious, and every idea 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 169 

of a passage south of the ship's present station was 
renounced. 

It was to the north that all hopes of finding the 
desired passage were now directed. So far, how- 
ever, as they were personally able to examine the 
land, its aspect was unpromising, and the most intelli- 
gent natives intimated that the only channel was in a 
much more northerly quarter, supposed to be no other 
than Barrow's Strait, through which Parry had already 
navigated. 

Before prosecuting further discoveries in this direc- 
tion, another journey was resolved upon to the west- 
ward, beyond the isthmus, to trace the coast of 
America as it extended along the newly-discovered sea. 
They thus hoped to reach Cape Turnagain, and to con- 
nect their discoveries with those of Franklin. The 
younger Ross again set out on the ITth May, with three 
companions, eight dogs, and provisions for twenty-one 
days ; and on the 19th, having crossed the great middle 
lake of the isthmus, he reached his former station on 
the western sea. The first view of it was celebrated by 
three loud and even joyous cheers, though tempered 
with regret at the diminished prospect of ever being able 
to navigate it. Having to spend the night here, they 
contrived a more comfortable sleeping-place, by ex- 
cavating a sort of burrow in the snow, roofing it with 
their skin boat, and placing a block of snow as a door. 

After passing Cape Isabella, formed of gray granite 
five hundred feet high, the party travelled along the 
coast west and north for twenty miles. On the morning 
of the 21st of May they discovered, behind a lofty point, 
an inlet, which, from its breadth and the different char- 
acter of its opposite coasts, afforded the hope that it 
might open into the Polar Ocean. They therefore 
made a complete circuit and a careful survey of its 
16 



170 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

shores ; but the only opening found was clearly ascer- 
tained to be the mouth of a river, named by them Garry. 
On ascending a high hill, they perceived several large 
lakes extending to the north-east, and forming, in fact, 
an almost continuous chain to Thom's Bay, near the 
Victory's station ; with interruptions enough, however, 
to prevent a ship passing through. Next day they pro- 
ceeded north-west along the coast ; but, resolving to 
reach the opposite land some miles distant, they crossed 
the frozen surface of the strait, and came to a large 
island, which was named Matty. They pursued their 
fatiguing journey along its northern shore, over rough 
ice ; and, passing another narrow strait, which they 
called Wellington, found themselves on the mainland of 
America. 

The coast now stretched due west, and, the surface 
being level, they proceeded with comparative ease and 
rapidity. The direction changing to the north-west, 
they soon arrived at a spacious bay, which was named 
Parry. They then travelled onwards two days, but with 
difficulties continually increasing, and experiencing 
great embarrassment, as regarded both their advance and 
return, in distinguishing between land and sea. " When 
all is ice, and all one dazzling mass of white — when 
the surface of the sea itself is tossed up and fixed into 
rocks, while the land is, on the contrary, very often flat 
— it is not always so easy a problem as it might seem, 
on a superficial view, to determine a fact which appears 
in words to be extremely simple." 

After experiencing great hardships fi-om the exhausted 
state of their dogs, and the necessity of abandoning a 
great part of their provisions, their return was attended 
with a considerable increase of suffering. The dogs fell 
victims to successive calamities, till, of eight, only two 
remained alive. It was proposed to vary the scene by 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. ITl 

keeping south of Matty Island, along the coast of the 
continent ; but, observing that it formed an extensive 
bay with winding shores, to follow the sinuosities of 
which would have consumed too much time, they pushed 
forward in a direct line over the frozen surface of the sea. 
On the 8th June they arrived in a very exhausted state 
in the neighborhood of Nei-tyel-le, where they met a 
party of natives, who received them hospitably, and 
supplied them so plentifully with fish, that they were 
able to take a day's rest, and proceed at leisure to the 
vessel, which they reached on the 13th. 

Meantime, Captain Ross himself had made a journey, 
though of more limited extent, with the intention of sur- 
veying the isthmus of Boothia, when he made the partial 
discovery of another large lake, to which he gave the 
name of Lady Melville. 

The nephew, upon his return, found that he had 
arrived just in time. The early spring, the only season 
when travelling is practicable in this region, was over. 
The thaw had set in with extraordinary rapidity ; the 
country was under water ; the streams impassable, and 
the surface of the ocean could not have been traversed 
without the greatest danger. Except a short excursion 
to procure fish, all their attention and efforts were 
directed to the extrication of the vessel with a view to 
her voyage northward, in which direction alone they 
could now hope to discover a passage to the western 
sea. But month after month rolled on, the height of 
summer passed, and the sea remained still bound in 
icy chains. In August its aspect began to present 
hopes, but these were followed by successive disap- 
pointments. Its close arrived, and they had the morti- 
fication to reflect that they had remained eleven months 
— a period in which they might have circumnavigated 
the globe — fixed to that dreary spot. 



172 ^ ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

At last, on the lYtli of September, with a transport 
of joy, they found themselves free, and the ship, so long 
immovable, again buoyant on the waves. They ad- 
vanced about three miles, when, encountering a ridge 
of ice, they made fast to one of its extremities, in a tol- 
erably secure position between two bergs. On the 23d 
they were completely frozen in, and by the 30th the sea 
exhibited one unbroken surface. The greater part of 
October was employed in laboriously sawing their way 
through the ice, the thickness of which was always 
increasing ; and they were at length obliged to desist, 
after reaching a spot not exactly such as could be 
wished, but which, amid an ocean immovable on every 
side, afforded tolerable protection. 

Another dreary winter having now set in, it became 
necessary to look narrowly into the stock of provisions. 
A certain reduction in the daily allo'wance was found 
requisite, leaving, at the same time, enough to maintain 
the crew in health and vigor, which they continued to 
preserve uninterruptedly during the season. They felt, 
however, the utter monotony of their situation pressing 
upon them with increasing severity ; they began almost 
to envy the Esquimaux, to whom eating and sleeping 
constituted the whole of existence. In this manner 
passed 1830 ; nor was it till April of the following year 
that excursions of any extent could be undertaken over 
the frozen surface of land and sea. 

The first adventure of this kind was conducted by 
Commander Ross. One interesting circumstance in his 
excursion was the discovery of the north magnetic 
pole ; the situation of which on the land of Boothia is 
marked on the circular map attached to this volume. 
'' The place of the observatory," he remarks, was as 
near to the magnetic pole as the limited means which T 
possessed enabled me to determine. The amount of the 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 173 

dip, as indicated by my dipping-needle, was 89° 59', 
being thus within one minute of the vertical ; while the 
proximity, at least, of this pole, if not its actual existence 
where we stood, was further confirmed by the action, 
or, rather, by the total inaction, of the several horizon- 
tal needles then in my possession/' This was very 
nearly the position assigned to it by scientific men 
several years earlier, and arrived at by protracting the 
direction lines of compass-needles in various circumja- 
cent latitudes, till they met in a central point. Parry's 
observations placed it eleven minutes distant only from 
the site determined by Eoss. 

''As soon," says the latter, " as I had satisfied my 
own mind on the subject, I made known to the party 
this gratifying result of all our joint labors ; and it was 
then that, amidst mutual congratulations, we fixed the 
British flag on the spot, and took possession of the 
North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory in- the 
name of Great Britain and King Yfilliam lY. We had 
abundance of materials for building inthe fragments of 
limestone that covered the beach, and we therefore 
erected a cairn of some magnitude, under which we 
buried a canister containing a record of the interesting 
fact, only regretting that we had not the means of con- 
structing a pyramid of more importance, and- of strength 
sufficient to withstand the assaults of time and of the 
Esquimaux. Had it been a pyramid as large as that of 
Cheops, I am not quite sure that it would have done 
more than satisfy our ambition, under the feelings of 
that exciting day. The latitude of this spot is tO° 5' IT', 
and its longitude 96° 46' 45" west." 

Even if the pole were stationary, this determination 

could only be regarded as approximate ; but when we 

know that the centre of magnetic intensity is a movable 

point, we shall readily understand that the cairn erected 

15* 



174 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

with so much enthusiasm can now only show where it 
ivas. According to Hansteen, the pole moves IT 4" 
every year, and revolves within the frigid zone in 1890 
years, so that it will not reach the same spot in Boothia 
until the year 3722 ! The precise determination of this 
point, however, is said to be comparatively unimportant, 
because its position can always be ascertained by ob- 
servations of the compass and dipping-needles. 

As soon as Commander Ross and his party returned, 
it was thought time, amid alternate hopes and fears, to 
watch the progress of the ice, and escape, if possible, 
from the prison of a third dreary winter. The season 
was not, on the whole, more favorable than that of 
1830 ; yet, on the 28th August, a somewhat earlier 
period, they contrived to warp out into the open sea, 
and on the morning of the 29th were in full sail. But 
they were baffled by changes of wind and heavy gales. 
On the 14th of September they could again take exer- 
cise by skating on the newly-formed ice. On the 2tth 
they found themselves completely fixed for a third win- 
ter. Their last year's navigation had been three miles 
— this season it was extended to four ! 

The spirits of the adventurers now began to droop in 
earnest. Their only means of escape seemed to be to 
proceed in the boats, or draw them over the ice to the 
wreck of the Fury, when, after supplying themselves 
with a fresh stock of provisions out of her stores, they 
might reach Davis's Straits, and be taken up by a whale- 
ship. In November the scurvy began to appear. The 
extraordinary exemption hitherto enjoyed from this 
dreadful malady, in the absence of the grand specific of 
vegetable food, Ross is inclined to ascribe to the abun- 
dance with which the men were supplied with water, 
notwithstanding the quantity of fuel requisite to melt 
the snow ; to their never having been too long at once 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 175 

exposed to cold, and to the care that was taken not to 
allow them to remain in their wet clothes. 

It was now determined to abandon the Victory, and 
move away to Fury Beach, as early in the spring as 
travelling should be practicable. The beach was one 
hundred and eighty miles distant in a direct line, and 
three hundred by the necessary windings. They set 
out on the 23d of April, 1832, on the first part of their 
expedition. The loads being too heavy to be carried 
at once, made it necessary to go back and forward 
twice, and even oftener, the same day. They had to 
encounter dreadful tempests of snow and drift, and to 
make circuits, in order to avoid impassable barriers. 
The general result was, that by the 21st May they had 
travelled three hundred and twenty-nine miles to gain 
thirty in a direct line, having in this labor expended a 
month.* 

After this preliminary movement, they returned to the 
ship, of which they were soon to take a final leave. 
On the 29th of May they hoisted the colors, nailed them 
to the mast, and drank a parting glass to the Victory, 
which they considered worthy of a better fate. In a 
few days they reached their former deposit ; and the 
men, extremely exhausted, were anxious to leave the 
boats and spare provisions, and push on to Fury Beach. 
The captain, however, considered it indispensable to 
carry these to the other side of Elizabeth Harbor, as 
the nearest spot to which there was full security of 
being able to return. The 9th of June arrived before 
everything was brought forward to that point. It was 
soon after arranged that his nephew and two others 
should set forward as a light party, with a fortnight's 
provisions, to ascertain the state of the supplies, and 
then return with their report to the main body, who 



176 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

were to proceed by slower marches, but raore heavily 
loaded. 

On this laborious journey Boss had an opportunity 
of examining the coast, and ascertaining that the large 
inlet in Brentford Bay was formed merely by a river, 
and could afford no passage to the western sea. On 
the 25th of June he met the advanced party, who 
reported that they had found three of the boats washed 
away, but enough still left for their purpose, and all the 
provisions in good condition. On the 1st of July the 
whole crew reached their destination. They imme- 
diately enjoyed a hearty meal, and soon reared a canvas 
mansion, which they named Somerset House. 

The month of July was spent in fitting out the boats, 
which were ready by the 1st of August, when there 
appeared a considerable extent of open sea, cheering 
them with the hope of being able to penetrate through 
Barrow's Strait into Baffin's Bay. The voyage, how- 
ever, proved very difficult ; masses of ice, still tossing 
amid the waves, placed them sometimes in dangerous 
positions ; and, when they sought shelter on the beach, 
it was mostly bordered by lofty, precipitous cliffs, from 
which, at this season of thaw, fragments were often 
detached, one of which might have crushed them to 
pieces. It was the 29th of August before they passed 
Cape Seppings, and arrived at the junction between 
Prince Regent's Inlet and Barrow's Strait. After sev- 
eral attempts to run along the latter, rendered fruitless 
by the ice, they were obliged to haul the boats on shore 
and pitch their tents. There was still time to have 
accomplished their object ; but repeated surveys from 
the neighboring mountains convinced them that Bar- 
row's Strait was now, and had been during the whole 
summer, an impenetrable mass. 

By the 24th of September all were agreed that no 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 177 

choice was left but to return to Fury Beach, and there 
spend their fourth Arctic winter. Proceeding, there- 
fore, in the boats, on the 30th of September they 
reached Batty Bay, more than half the distance ; but 
the ice rendering it impossible to sail further, they 
hauled them on shore, and left them above high-water 
mark. Then, carrying the provisions on sledges, and 
making a somewhat difficult journey, they arrived, on 
the Tth of October, at what they now accounted their 
home. 

The party suffered, at first, a good deal from cold, 
against which their canvas covering afforded very im- 
perfect shelter. They contrived, however, to envelop 
it in a wall of snow, and set up an additional stove, 
which was so effectual that the heat of 51° could be 
maintained within. It was necessary to make a reduc- 
tion in the allowance of preserved meats ; bread was 
somewhat deficient ; and the stock of wine and spirits 
was entirely exhausted. However, as they had caught 
a few foxes, which were considered a delicacy, and 
there was plenty of flour, sugar, soups, and vegetables, 
a diet could be easily arranged sufficient to maintain 
the party in health and vigor. 

The winter, as it advanced, proved one of great sever- 
ity ; and, when the cold reached its utmost rigor, their 
slight walls could no longer keep the mansion in a com- 
fortable heat. The tempestuous weather made it impos- 
sible to take exercise in the open air ; and at length 
their patience appears to have been wearied out by this 
long and dreary imprisonment within the Arctic wastes. 
On the 16th of February, 1833, Thomas, the carpenter, 
died of scurvy — an event deeply regretted in itself, and 
regarded as a warning of what was too likely to befall 
the rest. Several of the seamen, in fact, became affected 
with this cruel disease, of which Ross himself felt the 



178 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

sure approach, by the return of pain in his old wounds. 
Their situation was becoming truly awful ; since, if they 
were not liberated in the ensuing summer, little pros- 
pect appeared of their surviving another year. 

In April and Ma}^, as soon as it was possible to 
travel, while yet the ice remained firm, it was necessary 
to carry forward an ample stock of provisions to the 
position of the boats, and there await the opportunities 
of release. Though the distance was only thirty-two 
miles, their reduced numbers, and the weight of the 
loads, obliged them to go over the same ground eight 
times, raising the space actually traversed to two hun- 
dred and fifty-six miles ; so that it afforded laborious 
employment for a whole month. They then returned 
to Somerset House, where they remained till the 8th of 
July, on which day the whole party quitted, without 
regret, this dreary home, and, though much encumbered 
by the transport of the sick, arrived, on the 12th, at 
their boat-station in Batty Bay. 

The aspect of the sea was now watched with intense 
anxiety, not unmingled with dread ; yet the very habit 
of observing and of speculating on their prospects — 
some daily mounting the neighboring hill, and others 
reviewing their report — kept their spirits in a state of 
salutary activity. The pursuit of feathered game, which 
always afi'orded the hope, and sometimes the reality, of 
a good supper, also enlivened their time. A month 
was passed in vain expectation ; when, at length, on 
the evening of the 14th of August, a lane of water ap- 
peared, leading to the northward. Next morning the 
seamen were in movement at an early hour ; and, hav- 
ing cleared the shore of the ice that obstructed it, they 
embarked the provisions and stores, and by eight o'clock 
were under way, with a favorable wind. 

At midnight they passed Elwin's Bay, and on the 



ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 179 

16tli had come to the farthest point reached in the pre- 
ceding year, a spot which excited some painful recollec- 
tions. However, though all passage to the east was 
closed, there was still an open lane by which they could 
proceed northwards. In the evening of that day they 
were at the north-eastern point of America, and beheld 
the sea in that direction quite navigable, though encum- 
bered with ice. At three in the morning of the lYth 
they were in motion, making their way through the 
loose pieces, till, favored by a southern breeze, they 
turned the point of the solid mass which obstructed the 
inlet, and saw the wide expanse of Barrow's Strait open 
before them. Wafted on as if by magic, they reached 
the opposite shore, which they sailed along to within 
twelve miles of Cape York, having made in this day 
seventy-two miles. In the two following they passed 
Admiralty Inlet, and came within six or seven miles of 
that called Navy Board ; after which they were detained 
four days by contrary winds, and obliged to reduce 
their allowance of provisions. On the 25th, however, 
they could again use their oars, and reached the east- 
ern side of Navy Board Inlet, where they found a good 
harbor for the night. 

At four in the morning of the 26th they were roused 
from sleep by the look-out man announcing " a sail," 
which, viewed through a glass, proved evidently to be 
a ship. All were presently in motion, and their hopes 
and fears were variously expressed. But they were 
detained by calms and light shifting airs ; and, a breeze 
springing up, the vessel made sail with a rapidity which 
left them hopelessly behind. About ten, however, they 
descried another, which seemed to be lying to ; but she, 
also, soon bore up under all sail, and appeared to be 
fast leaving them. Happily, a calm succeeded ; and, 
by hard rowing, they approached so near that their sig- 



180 ROSS'S SECOND VOYAGE. 

nals were perceived, when she was seen to heave to 
and lower a boat, which made directly towards them. 

On its arrival, the mate in command asked if they 
were in distress and had lost their vessel, proffering his 
aid, stating, in answer to their inquiries, that he be- 
longed to the Isabella, of Hull, once commanded by 
Captain Ross, now by Captain Humphreys. On being 
told that the former person stood before him, his brain 
was so puzzled that he declared the captain must be 
under a mistake, as he had certainly been dead two 
years. When satisfied, however, of the contrary, and 
that he was in the presence of the long-absent naviga- 
tor, he offered his hearty congratulations. 

Such was the effect of previous hardship, that few of 
Ross's men could sleep on a bed ; and some time was 
necessary to enable them to enjoy this and other accom- 
modations of ordinary life. 

On the 30th of September, 1833, the Isabella left 
Davis's Straits, and on the 11th of October reached 
Stromness, in Orkney. On Ross's landing at Hull, on 
the 18th, such crowds were attracted that he could with 
difficulty reach the inn. He proceeded next day to 
London, and, having reported himself to the Admiralty, 
was presented, on the morrow, to his majesty at 
Windsor. 




THE PTARMIGAN. 




i 



CHAPTER X. 

back's land expedition. ARRIVAL AT FORT WILLIAM. — ANECDOTE OP 

A CANOE PARTY. — FRANKLIN. SCENERY. ASCENT OF RIVERS. 

AYLkER LAKE. WINTER QUARTERS. — STARVING INDIANS. INTENSE 

COLD. NEWS OF ROSS's SAFETY. EXPERT CANOE-MAN. ESQUIMAUX 

FRIENDS. THE THLBW-EE-CHOH. — THE POLAR SEA. RETURN TO ENG- 
LAND. back's VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. REMARKABLE PERILS AMONG 

THE ICE. HOMEWARD BOUND. DBASE AND SIMPSON'S DISCOVERIES. 

Boss's protracted stay of four years in the inhospita- 
ble north induced the government to send out an expe- 
dition to look for the absent party. Back, who was 
then in Italy, hurried home to volunteer his services ; his 
offer was accepted ; and with Dr. King, surgeon and 
naturalist, he left England in February, 1833. At Mon- 
treal he engaged three artillery-men and some voya- 
geurs, and embarked on the St. Lawrence in two canoes. 
At the Sault de Ste Mary, on the 11th of May, they pur- 
chased a third canoe, and commenced coasting along 
the northern shores of Lake Superior. On the 20th 
they arrived at the Hudson's Bay Company's establish- 
ment. Fort William. 

Passing the height of land which separates the waters 
which flow into Lake Superior from those which enter 
Hudson's Bay, the three canoes proceeded rapidly on 
their ever-changing and romantic route, at times dash- 
ing down rapids, then crossing small lakes, or making 
slow progress along small and shallow rivers, so that 
portages were often necessary. 
16 



182 BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

It is related by Back, that, not many years ago, a 
canoe was pursuing its way quietly down one of the 
streams through which the Arctic exploring party was 
now passing. It was approaching one of the many port- 
ages with which these streams abound, and the bowman 
and steersman were standing erect at stem and stern, 
casting quick glances ahead and on either side as they 
neared the waterfall which obstructed their progress. 
The approach to the landing-place was somewhat diffi- 
cult, owing to a point of rocks which projected into the 
stream, in the direction of the fall, and round which 
point it was necessary to steer with some dexterity, in 
order to avoid being drawn into the strong current. 
The fearless guides, however, had often passed the 
place in former years in safety, and, accordingly, dashed 
at the point with reckless indifference, their paddles 
flinging a circle of spray over their heads, as they 
changed them from side to side, with graceful but vigor- 
ous rapidity. The swift stream carried them quickly 
round the point of danger, and they had almost reached 
the quiet eddy near the landing-place, when the stem 
of the canoe was caught by the stream, which in an 
instant whirled them out from the shore, and carried 
them downwards with fearful rapidity. Another mo- 
ment, and the gushing waters dragged them, despite 
their most frantic efforts, to the verge of the waterfall, 
wliieh thundered and foamed among frightful chasms 
and rocks many feet below. The stem of the canoe 
overhung the abyss, and now the voyageurs plied their 
paddles with the desperation of men who felt that their 
lives depended on the exertions of that terrible minute. 
For a second or two the canoe remained stationary, and 
seemed to tremble on the brink of destruction ; and then, 
inch by inch, it began slowly to ascend the stream. 
The danger was past ! A few more nervous strokes, 




PERILOUS ESCAPE OF VOYAGEURS. P. 182. 



BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 183 

and the trembling bark shot like an arrow out of the 
current, and floated in safety on the still water under 
the point. The whole thing, from beginning to end, 
was the work of a few seconds ; yet who can describe 
or comprehend the tumultuous gush of feelings created, 
during these short seconds, in the bosoms of the care- 
less voyageurs? The sudden, electric change from tran- 
quil safety to the verge of almost certain destruction — 
and then — deliverance ! 

On the 6th of June the canoes arrived at Fort Alex- 
ander — situated at the southern extremity of Lake 
Winipeg. Here Back remained a few days, to await 
the arrival of Governor Simpson. During this period 
he and Mr. King made some observations on the dip of 
the needle, while the men busied themselves in unpack- 
ing and drying the provisions and packages. 

The mosquitos here were very numerous and annoy- 
ing. Of the sand-flies, near the lakes, Back says, that 
even the Indians do not contrive any way of escaping 
this tormenting insect. Their usual mode is to throw 
themselves on their faces to the ground, and to moan 
with pain. Back thought of killing them by smoke ; 
upon which Maufelly, his interpreter, expressed surprise 
that he " should be so unlike the old chief, who would 
not destroy a single mosquito. '^ By the ''old chief 
was meant Sir John Franklin, of whom Back says : "It 
was his custom never to kill a fly ; and, though teased 
by them beyond expression, especially when engaged 
in taking observations, he would quietly desist from his 
work, and patiently blow the half-gorged intruders from 
his hands: 'the world was wide enough for both.^ '' 

Leaving Fort Alexander on the 11th of June, Back 
coasted Lake Winipeg, toward Norway House, where 
he arrived on the ITth. Here he obtained the requisite 
number of voyageurs and attendants, amounting to 



184 BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

eighteen in all ; and, in high spirits, they started for their 
winter quarters on the eastern shore of Great Slave 
Lake. 

On the 21st of July they arrived at Portage La Loche, 
the high ridge of land which divides the waters running 
into Hudson's Bay from those flowing into the Arctic 
Ocean. Here they had to carry their canoe and bag- 
gage over the ridge, a distance of fourteen miles — a 
tedious labor, which consumed eight days. 

Of the scenery at this place Mr. King says : '' Within 
a mile of the termination of the portage, a most exten- 
sive and magnificent scene burst upon our view, and we 
discovered ourselves, through an opening in the trees, 
to be on a hill upwards of a thousand feet high, and at 
the brink of a tremendous precipice. We were cer- 
tainly prepared to expect an extensive prospect, but the 
beautiful landscape before us was far superior to any- 
thing that could be anticipated from the nature of the 
country we had hitherto seen. At a depth of two 
hundred fathoms below the summit on which we stood, 
the Clear Water River was to be seen winding its ser- 
pentine course in beautiful meanders for thirty miles, 
broken here and there, and interrupted by intervening 
woods ; while 

' the tall pines dwindled as to shrubs, 

In dizziness of distance ! ' 

'' The valley, at once refreshed and adorned by the 
smooth pellucid stream, was embanked by two parallel 
chains of hills extending towards the west, till it became 
lost in the purple hue of distance. The inclining heights, 
here and there covered with stately forests, and occa- 
sionally interspersed with barren spots or promontories of 
the most luxuriant verdure, were beautifully contrasted 



BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 185 

with the icinerated tinge which overspread vast tracts 
of country where once the dense forests had been con- 
sumed by fire.'' 

The party arrived at Fort Chipewyan the 29th of 
July ; at Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake, the 8th 
of August. Here, having obtained all possible informa- 
tion from the Indians relative to the course of the 
northern rivers of which he was in search, he divided 
his men into two parties, five being left as an escort for 
Mr. McLeod, and four being appointed to accompany 
himself in search of the Thlew-ee-choh or Great Fish 
Eiver, since named after Back himself. 

On the 19th of August, Back and his men began the 
ascent of the Hoar Frost River. Its course was a series 
of the most fearful cascades and rapids. Almost im- 
pervious woods of stunted firs, bogs, and swamps, 
occasioned great trouble to the party. They arrived, at 
length, in an open space, where the scene was one of 
barrenness and desolation : crag was piled upon crag 
to the height of two thousand feet from the base, and 
the course of the river here, in a state of contraction, 
was marked by an uninterrupted line of foam. 

Rapid now succeeded rapid ; scarcely had the party 
surmounted one fall than another presented itself, rising 
like an amphitheatre before them to the height of fifty 
feet. They, however, gained at length the ascent of 
this turbulent and unfriendly river, the romantic beauty 
and wild scenery of which were very remarkable ; and, 
after passing successively a series of portages, rapids, 
falls, lakes, and rivers, on the 27th Back observed from 
the summit of a high hill a very large lake, full of deep 
bays and islands, and which has been named Aylmer 
Lake, after the Governor-General of Canada at that 
time. The boat was sent out, with three men, to search 
for the lake, or outlet of the river ; which they discov- 
16* 



186 BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

ered on the second day, and Back himself, during their 
absence, also accidentally discovered its source in the 
Sand Hill Lake, not far from his encampment. Yielding 
to that pleasurable emotion which discoverers, in the 
first bound of their transport, may be pardoned for in- 
dulging. Back threw himself down on the bank, and 
drank a hearty draught of the limpid water. 

On the 30th of August they began to move toward 
the river, but, on reaching Musk-ox Lake, it was found 
impossible to stand the force of the rapids in their frail 
canoe, and, as winter was approaching, their return to 
the rendezvous on Slave Lake was determined on. At 
Clinton Golden Lake some Indians visited them from the 
chief Akaitcho, who had been a guide of Sir John 
Franklin. Two of these Indians remembered Back, one 
having accompanied him to the Coppermine River on 
Franklin's first expedition. At the Cat or Artillery 
Lake they had to abandon their canoe, and perform the 
rest of the journey on foot over precipitous rocks, 
through frightful gorges and ravines, heaped with 
masses of granite, and along narrow ledges, where a 
false step would have been fatal. At Fort Reliance the 
party found Mr. McLeod had, during their absence, 
erected the frame-work of a comfortable residence for 
them, and all hands set to work to complete it. After 
many obstacles and difficulties, it was finished. Dr. 
King joined them on the 16th of September, with two 
laden batteaux. 

On the 5th of November they exchanged their cold 
tents for the new house, which was fifty feet long by 
thirty broad, and contained four rooms, besides a spa- 
cious hall in the centre, for the reception and accommo- 
dation of the Indians, to which a sort of rude kitchen 
was attached. 

An observatory was constructed at a short distance, 



BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 187 

wherein certain mysterious and complicated instruments 
were fixed and erected ; iron in all forms being carefully 
excluded, and a fence run round it to guard it more ef- 
fectually from the men, as they walked about with their 
guns, ice-chisels, and axes. Here Back and Mr. King 
used to sit in solemn conclave for many an hour during 
the winter, closely observing the various interesting 
phenomena of earth and sky ; and awfully mysterious 
did this building appear to the simple Indians and voy- 
ageurs. They would approach as near as they dared, 
and, with their arms folded, brows knit, and heads down, 
would stand for hours wondering at the dead silence of 
its occupants, broken only at long intervals by such 
exclamations as ''now ^' — '' stop " — insomuch that they 
at last, after very mature and grave deliberation, came 
to the conclusion that they were " raising the devil ! ^' 

As the winter advanced bands of starving Indians 
continued to arrive, in the hope of obtaining some 
relief, as little or nothing was to be procured by hunt- 
ing. They would stand around while the men were 
taking their meals, watching every mouthful with the 
most longing, imploring look, but yet never uttering a 
complaint. 

At other times they would, seated round the fire, 
occupy themselves in roasting and devouring small bits 
of their reindeer garments, which, even when entire, 
afforded them a very insufficient protection against a 
temperature of 102° below freezing point. 

The sufferings of the poor Indians at this period are 
described as frightfiil. "Famine, with her gaunt and 
bony arm," says Back, " pursued them at every turn, 
withered their energies, and strewed them lifeless on 
the cold bosom of the snow.'' It was impossible to 
afford relief out of their scanty store to all, but even 
small portions of the mouldy pemmican intended for 



188 BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

the dogs, unpalatable as it was, were gladly received, 
and saved many from perishing. ''Often," adds Back, 
" did I share my own plate with the children, whose 
helpless state and piteous cries were peculiarly distress- 
ing. Compassion for the full-grown may or may not 
be felt, but that heart must be cased in steel which is 
insensible to the cry of a child for food.'' 

To add to the distress of Back, he received informa- 
tion that his friend Augustus, the affectionate Esquimaux 
interpreter who had accompanied him on a former jour- 
ney, hearing of his being again in the country, set out 
from Hudson's Bay, in company with a Canadian and an 
Iroquois ; the}^ lost their way, were separated, and poor 
Augustus fell a sacrifice to famine. His remains were 
found on the barrens not far from the Riviere a Jean. 
It appeared that the gallant little fellow was retracing 
his steps to the establishment, when, either exhausted 
by suffering and privation, or caught in the midst of an 
open traverse in one of those terrible snow-storms, 
which may be almost said to blow through the frame, 
he had sunk to rise no more. " Such," says Back, 
''was the miserable end of poor Augustus! a faithful, 
disinterested, kind-hearted creature, who had won the 
regard, not of myself only, but, I may add, of Sir John 
Franklin and Dr. Richardson also, by qualities which, 
wherever found, in the lowest as in the highest forms 
of social life, are the ornament and charm of humanity." 

At this critical juncture, Akaitcho made his appear- 
ance with an opportune supply of a little meat, which 
in some measure enabled Back to relieve the sufferers 
around him, many of whom, to his great delight, went 
away with Akaitcho. The stock of meat was soon ex- 
hausted, and they had to open their pemmican. The 
officers contented themselves with the short supply of 
half a pound a day, but the laboring men could not do 



BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 189 

with less than a pound and three quarters. The cold 
now set in with an intensity which Back had never be- 
fore experienced, — the thermometer, on the ITth of 
January, being 10° below zero. "Such, indeed," he 
says, " was the abstraction of heat, that, with eight 
large logs of dry wood on the fire, I could not get the 
thermometer higher than 12° below zero. Ink and 
paint froze. The sextant cases and boxes of seasoned 
wood, principally fir, all split. The skin of the hands 
became dry, cracked, and opened into unsightly and 
smarting gashes, which we were obliged to anoint with 
grease. On one occasion, after washing my face within 
three feet of the fire, my hair was actually clotted with 
ice before I had time to dry it." 

The hunters suffered severely from the intensity of 
the cold, and compared the sensation of handling their 
guns to that of touching red-hot iron ; and so excessive 
was the pain, that they were obliged to wrap thongs of 
leather round the triggers, to keep their fingers from 
coming into contact with the steel. 

The sufferings which the party now endured were 
great, and, had it not been for the exemplar^'- conduct 
of Akaitcho in procuring them game, it is to be doubted 
whether any would have survived to tell the misery 
they had endured. The sentiments of this worthy sav- 
age were nobly expressed — " The great chief trusts in 
us, and it is better that ten Indians perish than that one 
white man should perish through our negligence and 
breach of faith." 

About the middle of April preparations were begun 
for their intended journey to the sea-coast ; but on the 
25th a messenger arrived bringing to Back the welcome 
intelligence of the safety of Ross and his party. His 
feelings at this news are thus described: "In the ful- 
ness of our hearts, we assembled, and humbly offered 



190 BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

up our thanks to that merciful Providence which, in 
the beautiful language of Scripture, hath said, ' Mine 
own will I bring again, as I did sometime from the 
deeps of the sea/ " 

On the 'Tth of June, Back and Mr. King left Fort Re- 
liance for the Polar Sea. Their boat, thirty feet long, 
was placed on runners, and dragged over the yet un- 
melted ice of the lakes and swamps. A singular fact 
in regard to temperature is mentioned. About the end 
of May, just before they set out, the weather was sul- 
try, the temperature in the sun being 106° ! an extraor- 
dinary contrast to that of January I'lth, when it was 
10° below zero. They now experienced some cold and 
foggy weather. McLeod, with a party of Indians, was 
sent on ahead to hunt and make caches of the meat, to 
be picked up as the main party behind came up to 
them. 

On the 28th of June they were fairly launched on the 
head waters of the Thlew-ee-choh. From this time till 
their approach to the sea, a constant succession of falls, 
and rapids, and cataracts, more or less obstructed their 
progress, and, as Back says, " made him hold his breath, 
expecting to see the boat dashed to shivers against 
some protruding rocks amid the foam and fury at the 
foot of a rapid.'' In passing down one of these, where 
the river was full of large rocks and bowlders, the boat 
was obliged to be lightened ; and Back says, ''I stood 
on a high rock, with an anxious heart, to see her run it. 
Away they went with the speed of an arrow, and in a 
moment the foam and rocks hid them from my view. I 
heard what sounded in my ear like a wild shriek ; I fol- 
lowed with an agitation which may be conceived, and, 
to my inexpressible joy, found that the shriek was the 
triumphant whoop of the crew, who had landed safely 
in a small bay below." In short, strong and heavy 



BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 191 

rapids, with falls and- whirlpools, kept the men, for 
eighty or ninety miles, in a constant state of exertion 
and anxiety. 

He gives an instance, on one occasion, of the consum- 
mate skill of De Charloit, a half-breed canoe-man, who 
*' ran our rickety and shattered canoe down four success- 
ive rapids, which, under less able management, would 
have whirled it, and everybody in it, to certain destruc- 
tion. Nothing could exceed the self-possession and 
nicety of judgment with which he guided the frail thing 
along the narrow line between the high waves of the 
torrent and the returning eddy. A foot in either direc- 
tion would have been fatal ; but, with the most perfect 
ease, and, I may add, elegant and graceful action, his 
keen eyes fixed upon the run, he kept her true to her 
course through all its rapid windings.^' 

On the 13th of July a glimpse of sunshine tempted 
the captain to halt for the purpose of taking observa- 
tions ; and, while he was thus engaged, the men were 
permitted to scour the country in pursuit of deer and 
musk-oxen, which literally swarmed in the barren 
grounds. The hunters soon returned with four fine 
bucks, which afforded them an agreeable change from 
the customary meal of pemmican. 

The latitude was 65° 38' 21" N., and longitude 106° 
35' 23" W. At this place the river began to take an 
easterly bend, which perplexed them much ; causing 
great anxiety as to whether it would ultimately lead 
them to the Frozen Sea, or terminate in Hudson's Bay. 
In any case, they had nothing for it but to push on ; and 
their labors were rewarded by their finding that the 
river trended again in a northerly direction, and their 
hopes were further increased by the discovery, on the 
16th of July, of some old Esquimaux encampments. 
Once, indeed, they thought they saw tents of the Esqui- 



192 BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

maux ahead ; but, on a nearer approach, they turned out 
to be some luxuriant clumps of willows, which were 
inhabited by thousands of geese, which had selected the 
spot as convenient for the operation of casting their 
feathers. Thousands upon thousands of the most excel- 
lent quills were found scattered over the sand. A curi- 
ous feature in this part of the country was the number 
of huge bowlder-stones, not only in the river, but on 
the very pinnacles of the highest hills. 

On the 28th of July they met the first Esquimaux, 
who, as usual on their first seeing Europeans, exhibited 
consternation by shouts, yells, antics, and gesticula- 
tions ; under the impression, apparently, that by so 
doing they would frighten their new visitors away. 
The boat continued to approach the shore, despite the 
brandishing of spears and other belligerent demonstra- 
tions ; whereupon the whole nation formed in a semi- 
circle round the spot where the boat grounded, and 
stood on the defensive. Back, however, soon estab- 
lished friendly relations with them, by walking boldly 
up, unarmed, and alone, at the same time calling out 
Tima — peace — with great emphasis, tossing up his 
arms in true Esquimaux style, and, finally, shaking 
hands all round. This quieted them, and they soon 
mingled with the men, from whom they received a few 
buttons with great delight. 

A portage had to be made at this place, and the 
Esquimaux here aided them in transporting their boats, 
to which Back's party were wholly unequal ; so that to 
the natives he was indebted for getting to the sea at 
all. 

On the 29th of July, while threading their course be- 
tween some sand-banks, with a strong current, they first 
caught sight of a majestic headland in the extreme dis- 
tance to the north, which had a coast-like appearance. 



BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 193 

This important promontory Back subsequently named 
Victoria. '' This, then/^ observes Back, " may be con- 
sidered as the mouth of the Thlew-ee-choh, which, after 
a violent and tortuous course of five hundred and thirty 
geographical miles, running through an iron-ribbed 
country, without a single tree on the whole line of its 
banks, expanding into five large lakes, with clear horizon, 
most embarrassing to the navigator, and broken into 
falls, cascades, and rapids, to the number of eighty- 
three in the whole, pours its water into the Polar Sea, 
in lat. 6T° ir N., and long. 94° 30' W., that is to say, 
about thirty-seven miles more south than the mouth of 
the Coppermine Eiver, and nineteen miles more south 
than that of Back's River, at the lower extremity of 
Bathurst's Inlet." 

For several days Back was able to make but slow 
progress along the eastern shore, in consequence of the 
solid body of drift-ice. A barren, rocky elevation of 
eight hundred feet high was named Cape Beaufort. A 
bluff point on^he eastern side of the estuary, which he 
considered to be the northern extreme, he named Cape 
Hay. Dease and Simpson, however, in 1839, traced the 
shore much beyond this. The difficulties met with here 
began to dispirit the men. They were almost without 
water, without any means of warmth, or any kind of 
warm or comforting food, and sinking knee-deep, as 
they proceeded on land, in the soft slush and snow. 
So damp was the weather that for ten days, while 
encamped on Montreal Island, they could not light a 
spark of fire, or obtain a warm meal. 

The low, flat country was the picture of desolation. 
" It was one irregular plain of sand and stones ; and, 
had it not been for a rill of water, the meandering of 
which relieved the monotony of the sterile scene, one 
might have fancied one's self in one of the parched 
17 



194 BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

plains of the East, rather than on the shores of the 
Arctic Sea.'^ 

With unflinching ardor did Back push forward, in the 
hope of reaching a more open sea, and connecting their 
discoveries with those of Captain Franklin at Point 
Turnagain. On the tth of August they reached the 
extreme point of land which terminates the wide mouth 
of the river, and whence the coast trends to the west- 
ward. This was named Point Ogle, and another cape, 
seen far to the west, was named Point Richardson. 
Several portions of the coast of Boothia Felix were also 
seen in the distance to the northward. Here they were 
completely baffled in every attempt to advance. Back 
sent, however, a small party to the westward to trace 
the coast, which was all that could be done ; but they 
were only able to follow the shore about fifteen miles. 
The surface was level, and void of vegetation. They 
found, however, several pieces of drift-wood, one of 
which was nine feet long and nine inches in diameter, 
which the men jocularly called " a piece of the north 
pole." 

Back now resolved to retrace his steps. Before 
doing so, however, the British flag was unfurled, and 
the land taken possession of, with three enthusiastic 
cheers, in the name of His Majesty William IV. The 
latitude of the place was 68° 13' bT N., longitude 94° 
58' r W. 

In the middle of August they left the cold precincts 
of the Arctic Sea. In retracing his route Back ascended 
the high grounds which divide the northern from the 
southern streams. The Aylmer, the Artillery, and the 
Clinton Colden Lakes embellish the landscape, and 
discharge their waters into the Great Slave Lake. 
Here he found a splendid cascade, of which he says : 
'' The color of the water varied from a very light to a 



BACK'S LAND EXPEDITION, 195 

very dark green ; and the spray, which spread a dim- 
ness above, was thrown up in clouds of light gray. 
Niagara, Wilberforce's Falls in Hood's Kiver, the falls 
of Kakabikka, near Lake Superior, the Swiss or Italian 
falls, although they may each ' charm the eye with 
dread,' are not to be compared to this for splendor of 
effect. It was the most imposing spectacle I had ever 
witnessed ; and, as its berg-like appearance brought to 
mind associations of another scene, I bestowed upon it 
the name of our celebrated navigator, Sir Edward Parry, 
and called it Parry's Falls." 

Of the Indians, Back gives, in his narrative, some 
interesting anecdotes. 

Once, speaking with the Camarade de Mandeville, a 
potent Chipewyan chief, regarding the due observance 
of certain moral precepts for his future guidance, the 
chief listened with most profound attention and gravity. 
When Back had concluded, he raised his head a little, 
and, with eyes fixed on the floor, said, in a low and 
solemn tone, " The chief's words have sunk deep into 
my heart, and I shall often think of them when I am 
alone. It is true that I am ignorant ; but I never lie 
down at night in my lodge without whispering to the 
Great Spirit a prayer for forgiveness, if I have done any- 
thing wrong that day." 

On the 17th of September the return party met Mr, 
McLeod, according to appointment, at Sandy-Hill Bay. 
He had long been expecting them, and had spent many 
an anxious hour in watching the distant objects in the 
direction of their route. With this gentleman they 
returned to Fort Reliance, where they arrived on the 
2*7 th, " after an absence of nearly four months ; tired, 
indeed, but well in health, and truly grateful for the 
manifold mercies we had experienced in the course of 
our long and perilous journey." 



196 BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 

Preparations were soon set on foot to spend another 
winter in the wilderness. Once more the woods 
resounded with the woodman's axe, and the h'ttle rooms 
glowed with the blazing fires of wood. Again the nets 
were set and the guns loaded, and the white man and 
the red ranged the woods in company ; while Back and 
Mr. King found ample and interesting occupation in 
mapping their discoveries and writing their journals. 
On the 28th of May, 1835, Back bade adieu to the polar 
regions, and returned to England, where he arrived on 
the 8th of September, after an absence of two years and 
seven months. 

This was not the last of Back's labors. In 1836, at 
the instance of the Geographical Society, the British 
government equipped an expedition to complete the dis- 
covery of the coast-line between Regent's Inlet and 
Point Turnagain. The ship Terror was set apart for 
the service ; and Captain Back, just returned from his 
great land journey, was appointed to the command. 

The Terror left Chatham on the 14th of June, 1836. 
On the 29th of July, when a good way across the mouth 
of Davis's Straits, she came first in view of the ice. The 
quantity of it was great, and one enormous berg pre- 
sented a vertical face of not less than three hundred feet 
in height. Occasional clear and pleasant runs were 
afterwards made, but, in general, the obstructions were 
incessant and tremendous. And, so early as from the 
1st to the 3d of August, when the ship was near the 
vexed and foggy shores of Resolution Island, she had 
to bore and manoeuvre her way among dense floes, high 
packs, and surging whirlpools. 

On the 8th of August she was moored to a large ice- 
berg for protection from a gale. But the berg looked 
dangerous, and was anxiously watched by the ofiicers, 
lest it should capsize and overwhelm them. Early 



BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 197 

next morning it was violently struck on the weather- 
side by a heavy drifting floe, and for some minutes it 
rocked and oscillated in awful menace of an overturn ; 
but a large piece fell with a splash into the sea from one 
of its corners, and providentially restored the equi- 
librium. 

On the 14th of August the Terror entered the nar- 
rows between Salisbury Island and the north coast. A 
resolution was now taken to steer for the Frozen Strait. 
The course for four days continued to be severe, yet 
afforded considerable promise. But, on the 18th, after 
the ship had worked for some time in only one hole of 
water, she was arrested by a dense unbroken pack, of 
fearful extent and most wildly rugged surface. Yet the 
ship pushed boldly into it, and very soon, to the sur- 
prise and joy of all, the stupendous mass went asunder, 
and disclosed a path through what seemed an impene- 
trable barrier. 

On the 23d of August they sighted Baffin Island, 
which flanks the north side of the entrance of the 
Frozen Strait. But they found not a channel or a water- 
lane, even of the width of a brook, to invite them on. 
The scene everywhere around was a tumulated sea of 
ice, without one break, without one cheering feature, 
and with a surface so rough, and heaved, and peaked, 
that no human being could have travelled on it for more 
than a very brief distance. They all but abandoned 
expectation of ever getting into the Frozen Strait, and 
were now glad to attempt to work their way toward 
Southampton Island. They warped and bored, and 
spent many an hour in feverish excitement. On the 25th 
they made some little distance through a slack ; but at 
sunset they were stopped near an extensive floe, where, 
from the effects of pressure, some ponderous masses, 
not unlike the blocks of a Titanian ruin, had been heaped 
lY* 



198 BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 

up to the height of thirty feet. " The land, blue from 
distance, and beautifully soft as contrasted with the 
white cold glare of the interminable ice around, reflect- 
ing by the setting sun the tints of the intervening 
masses thrown into the most picturesque groups and 
forms, spires, turrets, and pyramids, many in deep 
shade, presented altogether a scene sufficient for a time 
to cheat the imagination, and withdraw the mind from 
the cheerless reality of their situation.'' 

On the 5th of September, when they were firmly fixed 
about sixteen miles from Southampton Island, and saw- 
some tempting lanes of water at no great distance, they 
fell to the spirited task of cutting a way through the 
ice by mechanical force. All the ship's company, offi- 
cers and men, seized axes, ice-chisels, hand-pikes, and 
long poles, and vied with one another in driving the 
blocks asunder, and in driving them away to the nearest 
pool. They at length succeeded in setting the ship 
free, and got her into a run of several miles toward the 
land ; but so early as next morning, they were once 
more ''in a fix." High winds and foul weather at the 
same time came on, and seriously bewildered them, yet, 
on the whole, did them good service, by driving them 
slowly toward the shore. 

On the 14th of September, within about four miles of 
the Cape Comfort of Baffin, the ship became severely 
"nipped." A violent, agitative, landward motion 
pressed all the surrounding ice into the utmost possible 
compactness, raised much of it into ponderous pointed 
heaps of twenty feet and upwards in height, and jammed 
the ship with perilous tightness between the nearest 
masses. 

The hapless ship was for many days drifted backward 
and forward along the coast, and away from it, over a 
range of about thirty miles, just as the wind or the cur- 



BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 199 

rent or the tide directed. The black frowning cliffs of 
Cape Comfort might have seemed to the most sluggish 
imagination to grin upon her in irony. She lay in the 
grip of the ice-masses as helplessly as a kid does in the 
folds of a boa-constrictor ; and once, when she slipped 
from that grip, or was hurtled into a change of position, 
she left her form as perfectly impressed behind her as if 
it had been struck in a die. The many old Greenland 
seamen on board all declared that they had never before 
seen a ship which could have resisted such a pressure. 
The perils, too, were increasing; and at length, on 
the 24th of September, the officers unanimously ex- 
pressed a conviction, founded on the experience of the 
preceding thirty-four days, that all hope of making 
further progress that season toward Eepulse Bay was 
gone- 
Captain Back now resolved to cut a dock in the only 
adjacent floe which seemed sufficiently large and high 
to afford the ship fair protection. But, on the very next 
day, by one of those extraordinary convulsions which 
are the last hope of the ice-bound Arctic voyager, the 
whole body of ice, for leagues around, got into general 
commotion, and burst into single masses, and, commenc- 
ing an impetuous rush to the west, tossed many blocks 
into heaps, ground others to powder, whirled all into a 
hurly-burly, and bore away the ship like a feather toward 
the Frozen Strait. Nothing could be done by the crew 
but to await the issue ; and when the storm subsided, 
they found themselves midway between Cape Comfort 
and the entrance of the Frozen Strait, about three miles 
from the shore, wdthout any prospect of either forcing 
their way into a harbor, or finding some little shelter in 
a floe. They were once more firmly beset, with the ad- 
ditional calamity of being so much tilted up, that the 
stern of the ship lay seven and a half feet above the 



200 BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 

horizontal, and the bow was jammed downward on the 
masses ahead. ''Thus/' says Back, ''ended a month 
of vexation, disappointment, and anxiety, to me per- 
sonally more distressing and intolerable than the worst 
pressure of the worst evils which had befallen me in 
any other expedition. '^ 

After a long series of such trying vicissitudes, a time 
of repose followed. The long calm of winter seemed 
at last to have set in. Back, remembering the example 
of Parry, induced the officers to assist him in contriving 
some amusement for the men. Theatricals were got up, 
and the farce of Monsieur Ton son went off with hearty 
laughter and abundant plaudits. An evening school 
also was instituted, and kept vigorously going. But a 
startling event was at hand. 

The fioe, which had been at once cradle, wagon, and 
bulwark, to the ship, now cracked and split to within 
about forty paces of it, and gave fearful omen of being 
ready to go to pieces. It had become a home to the 
crew, and had been made snug with snow-walls, snow- 
houses, galleries, and court-yard, which served well 
some of the best purposes of a deck. It still held to- 
gether, shattered and crazy, for three or four days, and 
carried them within sight of Seahorse Point, the south- 
eastern extremity of Southampton Island. Early on 
the morning of the 18th of February, there occurred, in 
rapid succession, first, a terrific crash on the eastern 
edge of the floe ; next, a hoarse rushing sound across it ; 
next, several severe shocks against the ship, and next, a 
visible rending of the floe right through the centre. The 
ship now began to strain and quiver ; and she then 
heeled over to port, and relieved herself about six 
inches from an embankment which had been built against 
her side. At this time the crashing, grinding, rushing 
noise beneath the ship, and all over the floe, were appall- 



BACK'S VOYAGE m THE TERROR. 201 

ing. About two hours after, a commotion like an earth- 
quake took place, and made cracks across the snow- 
houses, galleries, and court-yard, and forced the ship to 
creak through all her timbers. A semi-circular rampart 
of ice advanced from the opened sea beyond the floe ; 
and enormous hillocky masses, some round and massy, 
and others like small packs, had broken loose, and 
seemed big with woe and ruin. At this awfal moment 
the tumult suddenly ceased. But the ship was in a 
most perilous position ; the ice all around was so splin- 
tered and jagged, and so fissured and holed, that it 
could neither bear a boat nor be made a de'pository of 
provisions ; and the land was seven or nine miles dis- 
tant, and probably could not have been reached by even 
the expertest ice-man, who should have had nothing but 
his own life to take care of. 

On the following day the perils continued and in- 
creased, and on the 20th they reached ,a crisis. All 
the ice was again in motion, and one of its heaves broke 
up the floe along the starboard side of the ship, and 
threw down everything in its way. Some of the galle- 
ries now floated away, looking like tunnels ; and the 
ship herself was in open water, subject to the rubs and 
nips of the ice-masses. A little after, she was violently 
struck far below the water-line, and creaked hideously 
from stem to stern, as if she were about to go asunder. 
All the crew were confounded, and even the poor sick 
went tottering aft, in an agony of terror. But the ship 
lifted herself fully eight inches from the pressure of a 
force which would have crushed a less strengthened 
vessel to atoms ; and the assailing ice-mass either passed 
in part beneath the bottom, or was wedged against the 
large masses at the extremities. For upwards of three 
weeks, similar scenes, and worse, were frequent ; and 
never on the polar seas was there a more marvellous 



202 BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 

scene of awful dangers without a catastrophe, and of 
providential deliverances, without any instrumentality 
of man. The scenery was sometimes magnificently sol- 
emn, with such a perspective of moving, frowning, stu- 
pendous towers and bulwarks, as few human beings 
have ever witnessed ; and often, on the contrary, was it 
so enwrapped in fog, that its dreadful perils were much 
more readily heard than seen. 

On several occasions the ship was violently nipped, 
and lifted herself up vertically to more than twice the 
former height, and groaned from the severity of the un- 
der-pressure. Once the ice-masses near her came im- 
petuously on, and tossed their enormous weight against 
her, and threw her up and considerably over to star- 
board. At another time the lateral pressure crushed 
the contiguous ice into debris, and threw up a huge 
mass fully nineteen feet above the general level, and 
rolled the adjacent floe into hummocks, mounds, peaks, 
splinters, walls, and ramparts. At another time, after 
some alternations of commotion and quiet, and when all 
bad symptoms of an uproar had disappeared, the vast 
contiguous masses suddenly started into tumult, rubbed 
and tossed one another in furious conflict, flung piece 
over piece till all was a chaos, made the ship rise up 
abaft and tremble through hull and rigging, and accom- 
panied the whole with such a whining, and screeching, 
and howling, as might have been taken for a revelry of 
demons. Worse scenes than even these followed ; and 
one of the chief of them will be best given in Back's 
own graphic words. 

After describing two remarkable escapes from the 
tremendous shocks of driving ice, hurled together like 
mountain masses by an earthquake, he observes : " On 
the 16th of March another rush drove irresistibly on 
the larboard quarter and stern, and, forcing the ship 



BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 203 

ahead, raised her upon the ice. A chaotic ruin fol- 
lowed ; our poor and cherished court-yard, its wall and 
arched doors, gallery, and well-trodden paths, were rent, 
and in some parts ploughed up like dust. The ship was 
careened fully four streaks, and sprang a leak as before. 
Scarcely were ten minutes left us for the expression of 
our astonishment that anything of human build could 
outlive such assaults, when another equally violent rush 
succeeded ; and, in its way toward the starboard quar- 
ter, threw up a rolling wave thirty feet high, crowned 
by a blue square mass of many tons, resembling the 
entire side of a house, which, after hanging for some 
time in doubtful poise on the ridge, at length fell with a 
crash into the hollow, in which, as in a cavern, the 
after-part of the ship seemed imbedded. It was indeed 
an awfiil crisis, rendered more frightful from the misti- 
ness of the night and dimness of the moon. The poor 
ship cracked and trembled violently, and no one could 
say that the next minute would not be her last ; and, 
indeed, his own too, for with her our means of safety 
would probably perish.'' 

During all the period of disasters after the disruption 
of the floe, the ship was carried hither and thither over 
a range of from twenty-six to forty-eight miles north- 
west of Seahorse Point, and seldom further than about 
ten miles from the nearest land. But, after the 16th of 
March, she set pretty steadily toward the south-east, 
and kept a good deal nearer the shore. The officers, at 
a formal consultation, agreed that she now seemed 
liable to be lost at any moment, and that a light-boat, 
with provisions, should, if possible, be landed to serve 
as a last resource, to communicate with the Hudson's 
Bay Company's factory, in the event of her going down. 
She still held marvellously firm, and continued to be 
cradled on a small piece of floe. On the 16th of April, 



204 BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TEREOR. 

apparently by some conflicting action of strong calm 
currents, she lost the sides of her cradle ; yet even 
then she retained the base of it, and was borne along 
on this as on a truck. 

So late as the 20th of June, the ship still lay immov- 
ably fixed in the middle of a large floe, and, though dis- 
ruptions and openings then became common, at com- 
paratively small distances from her, she continued as 
firm in her cradle as in the beginning of February. No 
alternative oflered but to cut her out with implements ; 
and this proved an enormous labor, and occupied all the 
crew till the 11th of July. On that day the men had 
paused to draw breath, when suddenly the ice-rock 
burst asunder, barely allowing them time to clamber up, 
in hot haste, for safety. " Scarcely,^' says Captain Back, 
"had I descended to my cabin, when a loud rumbling 
notified that the ship had broken her ice-bonds, and was 
sliding gently down into her own element. • I ran in- 
stantly on deck, and joined in the cheers of the officers 
and men, who, dispersed on different pieces of ice, took 
this significant method of expressing their feelings. It 
was a sight not to be forgotten. Standing on the taff- 
rail, I saw the dark bubbling water below, and enormous 
masses of ice gently vibrating and springing to the sur- 
face : the first lieutenant was just climbing over the 
stern, while other groups were standing apart, separated 
by this new gulf; and the spars, together with working 
implements, were resting half in the water, half on the 
ice, whilst the saw, the instrument whereby this sudden 
effect had been produced, was bent double, and in that 
position forcibly detained by the body it had severed.'' 

A piece of the base of the ship's ice-cradle, however, 
still clung to her, and continued to do so till the 13th ; 
and when it did break up, it did not set her free. On 
the contrary, she slowly rose, heeled over to port, and 



BACK'S VOYAGE IN THE TERROR. 205 

seemed for some moments to be entirely capsizing. 
Those of her company who were on board felt suddenly 
as if on the verge of eternity. Yet they evinced no 
confusion, and cleared off and provisioned the boats 
with astonishing coolness and promptitude. She went 
so completely on her beam ends, that no man in her 
could move without holding on ; but she went no 
further. A submerged ice-mass, whose end was con- 
gealed to her bottom, and whose other end projected 
right out from her, was the cause of her overturn, and 
it now held her firm in her perilous position. Officers 
and men beheld it with awe, and set promptly and ener- 
getically to the arduous task of sawing it off. They 
worked from eleven o'clock in the forenoon till two in 
the following morning, afraid that a squall might arise 
and ruin them ; and when at last they had only ten feet 
more to saw, but were compelled by fatigue and drowsi- 
ness to go in quest of a short repose on the deck, 
suddenly there was a grating sound of breaking ice, and, 
before a word could be spoken, the ship sprang free, 
and entirely righted. The cheering of the crew was 
vociferous, and their joy unbounded. Four months, all 
but a day, had the ship been in the grip of the ice ; and 
now, after a romance of perils, and a cycle of providen- 
tial deliverances, she was again subject to the control 
of man. 

The last scenes we have described took place in the 
vicinity of Charles Island, about midway between Cape 
Comfort and the mouth of Hudson's Strait. The query 
was naturally raised, whether anything could now be 
done to prosecute the object of the expedition ; but the 
ship was found to be far too shattered to go again in 
her present state into collision with the ice, and a 
serious doubt soon arose whether she should be able 
to cross the sea to a British harbor. There was noth- 
18 



206 DBASE AND SIMPSON'S DISCOVERIES. 

ing for it but to run her, with all possible speed, toward 
home. She was utterly crazy, and broken, and leaky ; 
and not even her perilous tumbling among the ice-masses 
around the dismal Cape Comfort and the horrid Sea- 
horse Point were more perilous than the struggling, 
staggering, water-logged voyage which she made across 
the northern Atlantic. She at last reached the north- 
west coast of Ireland, gradually sinking by the head, 
and was run ashore in Lough Swilly on the 3d of Sep- 
tember ; and, had she been three hours longer at sea, 
she would certainly have gone to the bottom. Her 
whole frame proved to be strained and twisted ; many 
of her bolts were either loosened or broken ; her fore- 
foot was entirely gone ; and upwards of twenty feet of 
her keel, together with ten feet of her stern-post, had 
been driven over more than three feet and a half on one 
side, leaving a frightful opening astern for the free 
ingress of water. Well, therefore, might her crew, 
when they afterwards looked on her as she lay dry on 
the beach at low water, express astonishment that ever 
they had floated back in her to British shores ; and ample 
occasion had they to cherish adoring gratitude to the 
all-powerful and all-benevolent Being who had preserved 
them. 

Almost simultaneously with Back's expedition in the 
Terror, in 1836, the Hudson's Bay Company resolved on 
completing, if possible, the survey of those portions of 
the northern coast which Franklin and Back had failed 
to reach. This service was intrusted to Messrs. Dease 
and Simpson, two of their employees, with a party of 
twelve men, who were instructed to descend the Mac- 
kenzie River, and, on arriving at the sea, endeavor to 
follow the coast to the westward, either by land or water, 
as weather and other circumstances permitted, to the 
point at which Beechey turned back. They were after- 



DEASE AND SIMPSON'S DISCOVERIES. 207 

wards to explore to the eastward from Point Turnagaiu 
of Franklin ; to determine whether Boothia Felix were 
a peninsula, as Eoss supposed, or an island ; and then to 
push on in the same direction to some known point which 
had been visited by Back. 

In July, 183Y, they had reached Keturn Reef, where 
Franklin was stopped. Beyond this all was new. Two 
large rivers were discovered, the Garry and Colville, the 
latter more than a thousand miles in length. Although 
in the middle of the dog-days, the ground was frozen so 
hard at four inches beneath the surface, that they could 
scarcely drive in their tent-pegs. So keen was the 
north-easterly wind, that " the spray froze on the oars 
and rigging ; and out in the bay the ice lay smooth and 
solid, as in the depth of a sunless winter." Yet even 
here a few flowers cheered the eyes of the travellers, 
and enlivened the stubborn soil. On the 1st of August, 
further progress by water being impracticable, — they 
had gained but four miles on the four previous days, — 
Mr. Simpson, with some of the men, continued the jour- 
ney on foot, while Mr. Dease and the others remained 
in charge of the boats. The walking-party, after two 
or three days' travel, fell in with a number of Esqui- 
maux, from whom they hired an oomiak, or family-canoe, 
in which to pursue the voyage along the lanes of open 
water occasionally visible close to the beach. On the 
4th, after passing the mouth of a large, deep river, " I 
saw," says Mr. Simpson, " with indescribable emotions. 
Point Barrow stretching out to the northward, and enclos- 
ing Elson Bay, near the bottom of which we now were." 
This, it will be remembered, was the furthest point 
attained by the Blossom's barge in 1826, an exploit com- 
memorated by naming the bay after Lieut. Elson, one of 
the oflBcers in command. 

The party returned to the winter station on Great 



208 DEASE AND SIMPSON'S DISCOVERIES. 

Bear Lake, and, while there, received instructions to 
renew their search to the eastward, and were informed 
of Sir Gr. Back's expedition, with which they were, if 
possible, to communicate. They were descending the 
Coppermine in June, 1838, in pursuance of these in- 
structions, when the stream was swollen by spring 
floods, and encumbered with floating ice ; and, in shoot- 
ing the numerous rapids, " had to pull for their lives, 
to keep out of the suction of the precipices, along 
whose base the breakers raged and foamed, with over- 
whelming fury. Shortly before noon, we came in sight 
of Escape Rapid of Franklin ; and a glance at the over- 
hanging cliffs told us that there was no alternative but 
to run down with full cargo. In an instant,'' continues 
Mr. Simpson, " we were in the vortex ; and, before we 
were aware, my boat was borne towards an isolated 
rock, which the boiling surge almost concealed. To 
clear it on the outside was no longer possible ; our only 
chance of safety was to run between it and the lofty 
eastern clifl^. The word was passed, and every breath 
was hushed. A stream which dashed down upon us 
over the brow of the precipice, more than one hundred 
feet in height, mingled with the spray that whirled 
upwards from the rapid, forming a terrific shower-bath. 
The pass was about eight feet wide, and the error of a 
single foot on either side would have been instant 
destruction. As, guided by Sinclair's consummate skill, 
the boat shot safely through those jaws of death, an 
involuntary cheer arose. Our next impulse was to turn 
round to view the fate of our comrades behind. They 
had profited by the peril we incurred, and kept without 
the treacherous rock in time." 

They had navigated but a short distance along the 
coast when they were stopped by ice, and lingered many 
days at Boathaven, in a state of utter hopelessness. The 



DEASE AND SIMPSON'S DISCOVERIES. 209 

time for returniDg had arrived ere any real work had 
been accomplished. At length, on the 20th of August, 
Mr. Simpson started with seven men for a ten days' 
walk to the eastward, on the first of which they passed 
Point Turnagain, the limit of Franklin's survey in 1821. 
By the 23d they had toiled onwards to an elevated cape, 
rising from a sea beset with ice ; and, the land closing all 
round to the northwards, further progress seemed to 
be impossible. " With bitter disappointment," writes 
Mr. Simpson, " I ascended the height, from whence a 
vast and splendid prospect burst suddenly upon me. 
The sea, as if transformed by enchantment, rolled its 
free waves at my feet, and beyond the reach of vision 
to the eastward. Islands of various shape and size 
overspread its surface, and the northern land terminated 
to the eye in a bold and lofty cape, bearing east-north- 
east, thirty or forty miles distant, while the continental 
coast trended away south-east. I stood, in fact, on a 
remarkable headland, at the eastern outlet of an ice- 
obstructed strait. On the extensive land to the north- 
ward I bestowed the name of our most gracious sover- 
eign, Queen Victoria. Its eastern visible extremity I 
called Cape Pelly, in compliment to the governor of the 
Hudson's Bay Company." 

In 1839 they were more successful, and, favored with 
mild weather and an open sea, they sailed through the 
narrow strait that separates Victoria Land from the 
main. On the 13th of August they doubled Point Ogle, 
the furthest point of Back's journey in 1834 ; an event 
which terminated the long-pursued inquiry concerning 
the coast-line. They had thus ascertained that the 
American continent is separated from Boothia to the 
westward of Back's Estuary. The survey was now 
complete. A day or two later, the party, with flags 
flying, crossed to Montreal Island, in Back's Estuary, 
18# 



210 DEASE AND SLMPSON'S DISCOVERIES. 

where they discovered a deposit of provisions which 
Back had left there five years previously. The pemmi- 
can was unfit for use ; but out of several pounds of 
chocolate, half decayed, the men contrived to pick suffi- 
cient to make a kettle-full of acceptable drink in honor 
of the occasion. There were also a tin case and a few 
fish-hooks, of which, observes Mr. Simpson, ''Mr. Dease 
and I took possession, as memorials of our having 
breakfasted on the identical spot where the tent of our 
gallant, though less successful precursor, stood that 
very day five years before.''^ 

They had now obeyed their instructions to the letter ; 
the coast-line was determined, and connected with what 
was previously known to the eastward. It was time to 
think of returning, but it still remained a question 
whether some part of Boothia might not be united to the 
continent on the eastern side of the estuary. Doubling, 
therefore, its eastern promontory, they passed a point 
of the continent which they named Cape Britannia, 
and another called Cape Selkirk, and proceeded toward 
some islands in the Gulf of Akkolee, so far as to satisfy 
themselves that they were to the eastward of any part 
of Boothia. By the 20th of August they had sailed far 
enough to see the further shore, with its capes, of the 
Gulf of Boothia, which runs down to within forty miles 
of Repulse Bay ; and they then turned back. On their 
return, they traced sixty miles of the south coast of 
Boothia, where at one time they were not more than 
ninety miles from the site of the magnetic pole, as deter- 
mined by Sir James Ross. A long extent of Victoria 
Land was also examined ; and, on the 16th of Septem- 
ber, they once more happily entered the Coppermine, 
after a boat voyage of more than sixteen hundred miles, 
the longest ever performed in the Polar Sea. 



CHAPTER XI. 

RAe's land expedition. — SHORES OP HUDSON'S BAY. — ESQUIMAUX 

CANOES. REPULSE BAY. — GAME IN PLENTY. SLEDGE TRAVELLING. 

SNOW-HOUSES. RETURN. RENEWED INTEREST IN THE DISCOVERY 

OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. THE EREBUS AND TERROR. SIR JOHN 

franklin's last voyage. MYSTERY OF HIS FATE. 

The supposed great bay, extending from the furthest 
point reached bj Messrs. Dease and Simpson, eastward 
to the Fury and Hecla Strait, now became an object of 
intense interest. The mystery which overhung the 
north-east corner of the American mainland seemed, at 
last, to be almost revealed. Let but the coast-line from 
the mouth of the Castor and Pollux to the eastern ex- 
tremity of the Gulf of Akkolee be examined, so as to 
connect the discoveries of Messrs. Dease and Simpson 
with those of the second voyage of Parry, and those of 
the second voyage of John Ross, and all would become 
plain. 

In 1846, accordingly, the Hudson's Bay Company 
fitted out an expedition to effect this object ; and Dr. 
John Rae was appointed to the command. He was 
just the man for it : he was surgeon, astronomer, steers- 
man, and leader to the party ; had spent several years 
in the service of the company ; and added to his other 
attainments the not unimportant accomplishments of a 
first-rate snow-shoe walker and a dead shot. 

On the 8th of October, Rae landed at York Factory, 
after a canoe journey of about two months' duration, 



r^ 



212 RAE'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

through the interior, from Canada. Here he wintered, 
and, on the 12th of June, set sail in two boats, with six 
men to each, along the shores of Hudson's Bay, which 
are here low, flat, and uninteresting. On the 2'7th they 
landed at Churchill. They found the people here en- 
gaged in killing white whales, which are often seen 
rolling their bulky forms up the rivers that flow into 
the bay. Their flesh is used as food for dogs, the house 
in which it is kept being called the blubber-house ; to 
find which house, especially in summer, the simple 
direction, '' follow your nose,'' is sufficient. 

Having taken on board Ooligbuck, an Esquimaux 
interpreter, and the son of Ooligbuck, a sad thief, who 
had a peculiar fancy for tobacco and buttons, they left 
Churchill July 5th, 1846. During the day they passed 
the Pau-a-thau-kis-cow river, where they were overtaken 
by three Esquimaux, in their kayaks. These little 
canoes were propelled by their vigorous occupants so 
swiftly, that they easily kept up with the boats, while 
sailing at the rate of four miles an hour. The kayak is 
about twelve feet in length, and two in breadth, taper- 
ing off from the centre to the bow and stern, almost to 
a mere point. The frame is of wood, covered with seal- 
skin, having an aperture in the centre, which barely 
admits of the stowage of the nether man. They are 
used solely for hunting, and, by means of the double 
paddle, are propelled through the water with the veloc- 
ity of the dolphin. No land animal can possibly escape 
when seen in the water ; the least exertion is sufficient 
to keep up with the reindeer when swimming at its 
utmost speed. 

The oomiak, or women's boat, is much clumsier, 
slower, and safer, more in the form of a boat than a 
canoe, and is used to convey the female portion of the 
community and their families from one part of the coast 



RAE'S LAND EXPEDITION. 213 

to another, being propelled by the women, who use 
small paddles for the purpose. 

On the 13th, Chesterfield Inlet was passed. Walruses 
were here seen. " They were grunting and bellowing," 
says Rae, " making a noise which I fancy would much 
resemble a concert of old boars and buffaloes." At the 
head of Repulse Bay, where they landed on the 25th, 
they fell in with more Esquimaux, and procured from 
them some seal-skin boots. When about to put on a 
pair of these boots, says Rae, '' one of our female visit- 
ors, noticing that the leather of the foot was rather 
hard, took them out of my hands, and began chewing 
them with her strong teeth." By this process they 
were softened for the wearing. 

They quitted the head of Repulse Bay, in latitude 
66° 32' north, and succeeded in conveying one of their 
boats to the southern extremity of the Gulf of Akkolee, 
in latitude 6*1° 13' north. They found a chain of lakes 
lying across the isthmus, and derived great aid from it 
in the conveying of the boat. They proceeded along 
the coast of the Gulf of Akkolee till the 5th of August, 
and the}'- observed the tides to be, on the average, flir 
higher than in the Polar Sea, but exceedingly irregular, 
and varying in rise from four to ten feet ; and already 
they began to entertain a strong presumption that 
Boothia, after all, is a peninsula of the American main- 
land. But they were utterly baffled in their progress 
by ice and fogs and northerly winds, and felt obliged to 
return at about latitude 6*7° 30' north, and spend the 
winter at Repulse Bay. There they built a house, and 
procured a stock of provisions by hunting and fishing, 
principally reindeer and salmon ; and, excepting what 
was used for cooking, they had no fuel throughout the 
winter. The sporting-book for September showed that 
they had been diligent : sixty-three deers, five hares, 



214 RAE'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

one seal, one hundred and seventy-two partridges, and 
one hundred and sixteen salmon and trout, having been 
brought in. 

On the 5th of April, 1847, six of the party again 
started north with sledges, drawn by dogs, and travelled 
along the west shore of the Gulf of Akkolee ; and, on 
the 18th, they reached the vicinity of Sir John Ross's 
most southerly discoveries. The question of the sup- 
posed communication with the Polar Sea was here to be 
set at rest. They decided now to strike off from the 
cOast across the land as nearly north as possible ; and 
they had a tiresome march through snow, and across 
three small lakes ; and, at noon, when near the middle 
of another lake of about four miles in length, they ascer- 
tained their latitude to be 69° 26' 1" north. . They 
walked three miles more, and came to still another lake ; 
and, as there was not yet any appearance of the sea, 
Rae gave orders to the men to prepare their lodgings, 
and went forth alone to look for the coast. He arrived 
in twenty minutes at an inlet of not more than a quarter 
of a mile wide, and traced this westward for upwards 
of a league, and there found his course once more 
obstructed by land. 

Some rocky hillocks were near, and, thinking he saw 
from the top of these some rough ice in the desired 
direction, he inhaled fresh hope, pushed eagerly on to 
a rising ground in the distance, and there beheld 
stretched out before him an ice-covered sea, studded 
with innumerable islands. But it was the sea of Sir 
John Ross, the Lord Mayor's Bay of the disastrous 
voyage of the Victory ; and the islands were those 
which Sir John had named the Sons of the Clergy of 
the Church of Scotland. Rae, therefore, had simply 
crossed a peninsula of the Gulf of Akkolee ; and thus 
did he ascertain that the shores which witnessed the 



RAE'S LAND EXPEDITION. 215 

woes of the Victory, the eastern shores of Boothia, are 
continuous with the mainland of America. 

On this expedition, " our usual mode,'' says Rae, 
"of preparing lodgings for the night was as follows : 
As soon as we had selected a spot for our snow-house, 
our Esquimaux, assisted by one or more of the men, 
commenced cutting out blocks of snow. When a suffi- 
cient number of these had been raised, the builder com- 
menced his work, his assistants supplying him with the 
material. A good roomy dwelling was thus raised in 
an hour, if the snow was in a good state for building. 
Whilst our principal mason was thus occupied, another 
of the party was busy erecting a kitchen, which, although 
our cooking was none of the most delicate or extensive, 
was still a necessary addition to our establishment, had 
it been only to thaw snow. As soon as the snow-hut 
was completed, our sledges were unloaded, and every- 
thing eatable (including parchment-skin and moose-skin 
shoes, which had now become favorite articles with the 
dogs) taken inside. Our bed was next made, and, by 
the time the snow was thawed or the water boiled, as the 
case might be, we were all ready for supper. When we 
used alcohol for fuel (which we usually did in stormy 
weather), no kitchen was required." 

Sir James Clarke Ross, who figured in the voyage 
of the Victory as Commander Ross, says, *'Mr. Rae's 
description of the inlet he crossed over to in the south- 
east corner of Lord Mayor's Bay, accords so exactly 
with what I observed whilst surveying its shores, that 
I have no doubt of his having reached that inlet on 
which I found the Esquimaux marks so numerous, but 
of which no account was published in Sir John Ross's 
narrative." Rae appropriately named the peninsula 
Sir John Ross's Peninsula ; and the isthmus, connecting 
it with the mainland, and flanking the inlet. Sir James 



216 RAE'S LAND EXPEDITION. 

Boss's Isthmus. The latter is only one mile broad, and 
has three small ponds ; but it bears evident marks of 
being an autumnal deer-pass, and, therefore, a favorite 
resort of the Esquimaux. Rae had thus reached the 
goal of his wishes. 

A progress to the furthest point reached by Messrs. 
Dease and Simpson was not attempted, for it was now 
ascertained that this must comprise a journey over 
land, and either a voyage across a large land-locked 
estuary, or a coasting along its shores ; and for these 
the explorers had neither time nor resources. They 
forthwith began to retrace their route to the fort at 
Repulse Bay. All the caches of provisions which had 
been made during the outward journey were found quite 
safe, and thus afforded them a plentiful supply of food. 
On the morning of the 5th of May they reached some 
Esquimaux dwellings on the shores of Christie's Lake, 
about fifteen miles from Fort Hope. " At two p. m. 
on the same day," says Rae, ''we were again on the 
march, and arrived at our home at half-past eight p. m., 
all well, but so black and scarred on the face, from the 
combined effects of oil, smoke, and frost-bites, that our 
friends would not believe but that some serious accident 
from the explosion of gunpowder had happened to us. 
Thus successfully terminated a journey little short of 
six hundred English miles, the longest, I believe, ever 
made on foot along the Arctic coast." 

On the 12th of May, at the head of a similar party, 
Rae set out to examine the east side of the gulf; and on 
the 27th, in a bewildering snow-storm, he reached his 
ultimatum, at a headland which they called Cape Cro- 
zier. But, during a blink of the storm, he got a clear 
view of a headland nearly twelve miles further on, 
which he called Cape EUice, and computed to be in lat- 
itude 69° 42' north, and longitude 85° 8' west, or within 



FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. ' 217 

about ten miles of the Fury and Hecla Straits. ''Our 
journey/' says Dr. Rae, "hitherto had been the most 
fatiguing I had ever experienced ; the severe exercise, 
with a limited allowance of food, had reduced the whole 
party very much. However, we marched merrily on, 
tightening our belts, — mine came in six inches, — the 
men vowing that when they got on full allowance they 
would make up for lost time." On the 12th of August 
the whole original party embarked at Repulse Bay, and 
on the 31st arrived at Churchill. 

The return of Captain Sir James Clarke Ross, in 1844, 
from his brilliant career in the Antarctic Ocean, gave a 
sudden stimulus in England to the old craving for the 
discovery of a north-west passage. The ships Erebus 
and Terror were now famous for their fitness to brave 
the dangers of the ice, and could be reequipped at com- 
paratively small cost. Naval officers and whale-fisher- 
men and hardy seamen were fired with the spirit of 
adventure. Statesmen panted to send the British flag 
across all the breadth of the Polar Sea ; scientific gen- 
tlemen longed for decisions in terrestrial magnetism, 
which could be obtained only in the regions around the 
magnetic pole ; and, though merchants and other utilita- 
rians could never again regard the old notion of a com- 
mercial highway to the Indian seas through Behring's 
Strait as worthy of consideration, yet multitudes of the 
curious, among all classes of society, were impatient to 
have the veil penetrated which had so long hid from the 
world's wondering gaze the mysteries of the ice-girt 
archipelago of the north. The very difficulties of the 
enterprise, together with the disasters or failures of all 
former expeditions, only roused the general resolution. 

Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, had for 
thirty years been the fervent advocate of every enter- 
prise which could throw light on the Arctic regions, and 
19 



218 FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. 

had incessantly bent in that direction the powerful influ- 
ence which he wielded ; and now again was he at his 
vocation. Lieut. Col. Sabine, also, whose opinion car- 
ried much weight, declared *' that a final attempt to 
make a north-west passage would render the most 
important service that now remained to be performed 
toward the completion of the magnetic survey of the 
globe. ^^ The Lords of the Admiralty and the Council 
of the Eoyal Society gave a formal assent ; and Sir 
John Franklin, the hero of some most perilous exploits 
within the Arctic circle, who now stood out to view as 
the likeliest man to conduct the desired enterprise, had 
said in 1836, and continued to say still, ''that no ser- 
vice was nearer to his heart than the completion of the 
survey of the north-west coast of America, and the 
accomplishment of a north-west passage." 

The Erebus and the Terror were ordered to be got 
ready. Both had braved all the perils of the Antarctic 
expedition under Sir James C. Koss, and the latter was 
the ship of the terrific ice-voyage of 1836, in Hudson's 
Bay. They were the best-tested and the best-appurte- 
nanced vessels which had ever faced the frozen regions ; 
and each was now fitted with a small steam-engine and 
screw-propeller. Sir John Franklin was appointed to 
the chief command, and hoisted his flag in the Erebus ; 
and Captain Kichard Crozier, who had been the distin- 
guished colleague of Sir James C. Ross in the Antarctic 
voyage, was appointed to the Terror. So many naval 
ofiicers volunteered their services, that, had all been ac- 
cepted, they might themselves have completely manned 
the ships. The total number of persons put on board 
was one hundred and thirty-eight ; and they formed as 
select, resolute, and experienced a body of adventurers 
as ever went to sea. The transport Daretto Junior, 
also, under the command of Lieut. Griffith, was laden 



FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. 219 

with out-stores, to be discharged into the ships in 
Davis's Strait. 

The ofiScial instructions to Sir John Franklin were 
minute, comprehensive, and far-sighted, and made pro- 
vision for all important contingencies. But only those 
of them which relate to the main conduct of the expedi- 
tion possess much public interest ; and these, taken in 
connection with the mournful and exciting mystery into 
which the ships so soon passed, seem too momentous to 
allow of much abridgment. "On putting to sea," said 
they, " you are to proceed, in the first place, by such a 
route as, from the wind and weather, you may deem to 
be the most suitable for despatch, to Davis's Strait, 
taking the transport with you to such a distance up 
that strait as you may be able to proceed without imped- 
iment from ice, being careful not to risk that vessel by 
allowing her to be beset in the ice, or exposed to any 
violent contact with it. You will then avail yourself 
of the earliest opportunity of clearing the transport of 
the provisions and stores with which she is charged for 
the use of the expedition ; and you are then to send her 
back to England, giving to the agent or master such 
directions for his guidance as may appear to you most 
proper, and reporting by that opportunity your proceed- 
ings to our secretary for our information. You will 
then proceed, in the execution of your orders, into Baf- 
fin's Bay, and get, as soon as possible, to the western 
side of the strait, provided it should appear to you that 
the ice chiefly prevails on the eastern side or near the 
middle, the object being to enter Lancaster Sound with 
as little delay as possible. 

'* But, as no specific directions can be given, owing 
to the position of the ice varying from year to year, you 
will, of course, be guided by your own observations as 
to the course most eligible to be taken, in order to 



220 FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. 

insure a speedy arrival in the sound above-mentioned. 
As, however, we have thought fit to cause each ship to 
be fitted with a small steam-engine and propeller, to be 
used only in pushing the ships through channels be- 
tween masses of ice when the wind is adverse, or in a 
calm, we trust the difficulty usually found in such cases 
will be much obviated. But, as the supply of fuel to 
be taken in the ships is necessarily small, you will use 
it only in cases of difficulty. 

'' Lancaster Sound and its continuation through Bar- 
row's Strait, having been four times navigated without 
any impediment by Sir Edward Parry, and since fre- 
quently by whaling-ships, will probably be found with- 
out any obstacles from ice or islands ; and Sir Edward 
P^rry having also proceeded from the latter in a straight 
course to Melville Island, and returned without experi- 
encing any or very little difficulty, it is hoped that the 
remaining portion of the passage, about nine hundred 
miles, to Behring's Strait, may also be found equally 
free from obstruction ; and in proceeding to the west- 
ward, therefore, you will not stop to examine any open- 
ings either to the northward or southward in that strait, 
but continue to push to the westward, without loss of 
time, in the latitude Of about 74^°, till you have reached 
the longitude of that portion of land on which Cape 
Walker is situated, or about 98° west. From that 
point we desire that every efibrt be used to endeavor to 
penetrate to the southward and westward, in a course 
as direct towards Behring's Strait as the position and 
extent of the ice, or the existence of land, at present 
unknown, may admit. 

'' We direct you to this particular part of the Polar 
Sea as affording the best prospect of accomplishing the 
passage to the Pacific, in consequence of the unusual 
magnitude and apparently fixed state of the barrier of 



FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. 221 

ice observed by the Hecla and Griper in the year 1820, 
off Cape Dundas, the south-western extremity of Mel- 
ville Island ; and we therefore consider that loss of time 
would be incurred in renewing the attempt in that 
direction. But, should your progress in the direction 
before ordered be arrested by ice of a permanent appear- 
ance, and should you, when passing the mouth of the 
strait betwen Devon and Cornwallis's Islands, have 
observed that it was open and clear of ice, we desire 
that you will duly consider, with reference to the time 
already consumed, as well as to the symptoms of a late 
or early close of the season, whether that channel might 
not offer a more practicable outlet from the archipelago, 
and a more ready access to the open sea, where there 
would be neither islands nor banks to arrest and fix the 
floating masses of ice. 

" And if you should have advanced too far to the 
south-westward to render it expedient to adopt this 
new course before the end of the present season, and if, 
therefore, you should have determined to winter in that 
neighborhood, it will be a matter for your mature delib- 
eration whether, in the ensuing season, you would pro- 
ceed by the above-mentioned strait, or whether you 
should persevere to the south-westward, according to 
the former directions. 

"You are well aware, having yourself been one of the 
intelligent travellers who have traversed the American 
shore of the Polar Sea, that the groups of islands that 
stretch from that shore to the northward, to a distance 
not yet known, do not extend to the westward further 
than about the one hundred and twentieth degree of 
western longitude ; and that beyond this, and to Beh- 
ring's Strait, no land is visible from the American shore 
of the Polar Sea. In an undertaking of this description, 
much must be always left to the discretion of the com- 
19* 



222 



FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. 



manding officer ; and, as the objects of this expedition 
have been fully explained to you, and you have already 
had much experience on service of this nature, we are 
convinced we cannot do better than leave it to your 
judgment." 

He was instructed, also, in the event of reaching 
Behring's Strait, to proceed to the Sandwich Islands 
and Panama, and to put an officer ashore at the latter 
place with despatches. 

The ships sailed from the Thames on the 19th of 
May, 1845. The Erebus and the Terror received the 
transport's stores, and dismissed her in Davis's Strait, 
and then had abundant provisions of every kind for 
three years, besides five bullocks. They were seen by 
the whaler Prince of Wales, on the 26th of July, moored 
to an iceberg, waiting for an opening through the long 
vast body of ice which extends along the middle of Baf- 
fin's Bay. They were then in latitude 14° 48' north, and 
longitude 66° 13' west, not far from the centre of Baffin's 
Bay, and about two hundred and ten miles from the 
entrance of Lancaster Sound. 




CHAPTER XII. 

AXXIETY IN REGABD TO FRANKLIN AND HIS SHIPS. — THREE EXPEDI- 
TIONS OF SEARCH SENT OUT. KELLETT AND MOORE's EXPEDITION BY 

BEHRING'S STRAIT. ITS RETtTRN. RICHARDSON'S AND RAE's LAND 

EXPLORATIONS. — SIB J. 0. ROSS'S EXPEDITION BY LANCASTER SOUND. 

— ^ THE EXPLORERS RETURN UNSUCCESSFUL. LIEUT. PULLEN, FROM THE 

BEHRIXG STRAIT EXPEDITION, ASCENDS THE MACKENZIE. RETURN TO 

THE ARCTIC SEA AND BACK. THE SEASON OF 1850. — PULLEN'S ARRI- 
VAL IN ENGLAND. 

Toward the end of the year 184t, anxiety began to 
be felt in regard to the fate of Franklin and his men. 
Not a word had been heard from them since they had 
been seen by the Prince of Wales whaler ; and appre- 
hension became general that they had shared a similar 
fate to the Fury of Sir Edward Parry, or the Victory of 
Sir John Ross. The government, therefore, promptly 
determined to send three expeditions in search of them. 
The first was a marine expedition, by way of Beh- 
ring's Strait, to be conducted by Captain Henry Kellett, 
of the ship Herald, of twenty-six guns, then in the 
Pacific, aided by Commander Thomas E. L. Moore, in 
the Plover, surveying vessel ; and this was designed 
to relieve Sir John Franklin and his companions in 
the event of their having gone through the north-west 
passage, and stuck fast at some advanced point of the 
Polar Sea. The second was an overland and boat expe- 
dition, to be conducted by Sir John Richardson, to 
descend the Mackenzie River, and to examine the coast 
eastward to the Coppermine ; and this was designed to 
afford relief in the event of the adventurers having 



224 KELLETT AND MOORE'S EXPEDITION. 

taken to their boats westward of the Northern Archi- 
pelago, and forced their way to the American continent. 
The third was a marine expedition, to be conducted 
by Sir James Clarke Eoss, with the ships Enterprise and 
Investigator, through Lancaster Sound and Barrow's 
Strait, to examine all the tracks of the missing ships 
westward as far as they could penetrate into the archi- 
pelago ; and this was designed to afford relief in the 
event of the adventurers having been arrested either in 
the very throat of the supposed passage, or at some 
point on this side of it, and of their attempting to 
retrace their steps. This plan of search seemed com- 
prehensive and noble, 'and was carried with all possible 
promptitude into execution. The Plover left Sheerness 
on the 1st January, 1848 ; but, being a miserable sailer, 
did not reach Oahu, in the Sandwich Islands, till the 22d 
August. She was then too late to attempt, that season, 
any eificient operations within the Arctic Circle, and 
she passed on to winter quarters at Noovel, on the coast 
of Kamtschatka. The Herald, meanwhile, had received 
instructions from home, and gone northward as far as 
Cape Krusenstern, in Kotzebue Sound, the appointed 
rendezvous. But, not being prepared to winter there, 
nor prepared for explorations among ice, she returned, 
in autumn, to the Sandwich Islands. 

On the 30th June, 1849, the Plover left Noovel, and 
on the 14th July anchored off Chamisso Island, at the 
bottom of Kotzebue Sound. Next day she was joined 
by the Herald and by the Nancy Dawson, the latter a 
yacht belonging to Robert Shedden, Esq., who, in the 
course of a voyage of pleasure round the globe, got 
intelligence in China of the intended expedition through 
Behring's Strait in search of Sir John Franklin, and 
nobly resolved to devote his vessel and himself to its 
aid. On the 18th the three vessels left Chamisso; on 



KELLETT AND MOORE'S EXPEDITION. 225 

the 20th they were off Cape Lisburn ; and on the 25th, 
after having passed Icy Point, they despatched a boat 
expedition, under Lieut. PuUen. 

This boat expedition was designed to connect the 
proceedings of the present voyage with those of the 
overland expedition under Sir John Eichardson, and to 
institute se,arch and provide succor for the missing 
adventurers on the likeliest part of the coast and main- 
land west of the Mackenzie River. It consisted of the 
Herald's pinnace, decked over, and three other boats, 
and comprised twenty-five men, and had nearly three 
months' provisions for its own use, besides five cases of 
pemmican for the use of Sir John Franklin's party. But 
it was accompanied also by Mr. Shedden in his yacht. 
It was directed, after proceeding a certain distance along 
the coast in-shore, to return to a rendezvous with the 
Plover at Chamisso Island, but at the same time to des- 
patch from its furthest point a detachment in two whale- 
boats, well provisioned and equipped, to extend the 
search to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and then to 
ascend that river, and proceed homeward by Fort Hope 
and York Factory, in the summer of 1850. 

The Herald and the Plover, in the mean while, bore 
away to the north, and on the 26th, in latitude Yl° 5' 
north, reached the heavily-packed ice. They sailed 
sometimes along the edge of this, and sometimes 
through streams and among floes, till the 28th, when 
they could proceed no further, on account of the per- 
fect impenetrableness of the pack. They were then in 
latitude 12° 51' north, and longitude 163° 48' west. 
The ice, as far as it could be seen from the mast-head, 
trended away west-south-westward ; yet, while densely 
compact for leagues distant, seemed to be broken by a 
water-line in the northern horizon. On the 28th the 
ships came again to the land, and the Herald bore 



226 KELLETT AND MOORE'S EXPEDITION. 

in to examine Wainwright's Inlet, while Commander 
Moore went on shore, erected a mark, and buried a 
bottle containing information about the boats. This 
place, unhappily, was found too shallow to afford harbor- 
age ; else it would have proved an excellent retreat, on 
account, at once, of its high latitude, of its being a resort 
for reindeer, of the friendliness of the natives, and of 
there being no nearer harbor to the south than Kotze- 
bue's Sound, while even that place was regarded by the 
ice-masters as an unsafe wintering quarter. 

From the 1st of August till the I'Zth, Cape Lisbum 
being appointed for a rendezvous, the ships made 
active explorations in various directions near shore, 
and away northward as far as they could penetrate. On 
the Itth the Herald discovered a new territory. '' At 
forty minutes past nine,'' on that day, says Captain 
Kellett, " the exciting report of ' Land ho ! ' was made 
from the mast-head : both mast-heads were soon after- 
wards crowded. In running a course along the pack 
toward our first discovery, a small group of islands was 
reported on our port-beam, a considerable distance 
within the outer margin of the ice. Still more distant 
than this group (from the deck), a very extensive and 
high land was reported, which I had been watching for 
som« time, anxiously awaiting a report from some one 
else. There was a fine clear atmosphere (such a one 
as can only be seen, in this climate, except in the direc- 
tion of this extended land), where the clouds rolled in 
numerous immense masses, occasionally leaving the 
very lofty peaks uncapped ; where could be distinctly 
seen columns, pillars, all very broken, which is charac- 
teristic of the higher headlands in this sea — East Cape 
and Cape Lisburn, for example. With the exception of 
the north-east and south-east extremes, none of the lower 
land could be seen, unless, indeed, what I took, at first, 



KELLETT AND MOORE'S EXPEDITION. 227 

for a small group of islands within the pack edge was 
a point of this great land. This island, or point, was 
distant twenty-five miles from the ship's track ; higher 
parts of the land seemed not less, I consider, than sixty. 
When we hove to off the first land seen, the northern 
extreme of the great land showed out to the eastward 
for a moment, and so clear as to cause some who had 
doubts before to cry out, ' There, sir, is the land quite 
plain.' " They afterwards ran up to the island, and 
landed upon it, and found it a solid and almost inaccess- 
ible mass of granite, about four and a half miles long, 
two and a half miles broad, and fourteen hundred feet 
high. Its situation is latitude Yl° 20' north, and longi- 
tude 175° 16' west. The distant mountainaus land 
seemed to be extensive, and was supposed by Captain 
Kellett to be a continuation of the lofty range seen by 
the natives off Cape Jakan, in Asia, and mentioned by 
Baron Wrangell, in his Polar Voyages. 

In the vicinity of Cape Lisburn, on the 24th August, 
the Nancy Dawson, and the return boats of Lieut. 
PuUen's expedition, rejoined the Herald. They had 
searched the coast as far east as Dease's Inlet, and had 
there parted with the two whale-boats ; and had, at 
several points, made deposits of provisions, but had not 
obtained the slightest intelligence of the missing adven- 
turers. Mr. Shedden had been particularly active and 
daring, and had many times put his yacht in peril. 
And, it is painful to add, though this is said in antici- 
pation of the date, that he fell a victim to his excessive 
exertions during the noble service. He died, eight or 
ten weeks after, at Mazatlan. 

On the 1st of September the two ships and the yacht 
rendezvoused in Kotzebue Sound. Upwards of a fort- 
niglit was now spent in making an interesting explora- 
tion up the Buckland River, and in establishing friendly 



228 RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

relations with the natives. The whole month of Sep- 
tember was remarkably fine, the frost to the latest so 
light as not to arrest the streams, and strong winds 
generally blowing from the east. The Plover prepared 
to winter in Kotzebue Sound, with the view of making 
further researches, and received from her consort as 
much provisions as she could stow or take care of. 
And on the 29th September the Herald and the yacht 
weighed anchor, and stood away for the south. 

On the 10th July, 1850, the Herald again joined the 
Plover at Chamisso Island ; and the two ships then set 
out together on another exploration. They proceeded 
northward till they sighted the pack-ice, and then sepa- 
rated — the Herald to return in quest of another and 
stronger expedition which had sailed from England, 
and which we shall afterwards have occasion to notice ; 
and the Plover to prosecute the search eastward along 
the coast. Commander Moore, by means of his boats, 
made minute examination of all the inlets between Icy 
Cape and Point Barrow ; he and his men suffered se- 
verely from exposure to cold ; but they were entirely 
unsuccessful in the object of their search. The two 
ships again fell in with each other off Cape Lisburn on 
the 13th August ; and Captain Kellett eventually gave 
full victualling to the Plover, ordered her to winter in 
Grantley Harbor, and then, toward the close of the open 
season, returned through Behring's Strait on his way to 
England. Thus, in October, 1850, ended this first west- 
ern searching expedition, without having thrown one 
ray of light on the probable fate of Sir John Franklin. 

The second searching expedition was the overland 
one, under the command of Sir John Richardson. In 
preparation for it, several boats, seven tons of pemmi- 
can, large quantities of other provisions and stores, five 
seamen, and fifteen sappers and miners, were embarked 



RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 229 

at Gravesend, on board of ships of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, on the 4th June, 184*7. Sir John Richardson 
and Mr. Eae left Liverpool on the 25th March, 1848, 
and succeeded in overtaking Chief-trader Bell, in charge 
of the boats and the men, at Methy Portage, on the 
20th June. The whole party reached the last portage 
on Slave River on the 15th July, and there they divided 
into a seaward or exploring party, under Sir John Rich- 
ardson and Mr. Rae, and a landward or auxiliary party, 
under Mr. Bell. The seaward party comprised three 
boats, with full loads of pemmican, and eighteen men, 
and immediately embarked. The landward party com- 
prised two boats and the stores for winter use, and 
were directed to make the best of their way to Great 
Bear Lake, to coast round its western shore, and to 
establish a fishery at its west end, near the site of Fort 
Franklin, for the convenience of the seaward party, in 
the event of its having to return up the Mackenzie ; 
to erect, at its north-eastern extremity, near the influx 
of the Dease River, suitable dwelling-houses and store- 
houses for winter quarters ; and, in the beginning of 
September, to despatch a well-tried Cree Indian and a 
native hunter to the banks of the Coppermine, there to 
hunt till the 20th of that month, and to keep a diligent 
outlook for the arrival of the boats. 

The seaward party reached the sea on the 4th of 
August. On their way down, they put ashore, at Fort 
Good Hope, the lowest of the company's posts on the 
Mackenzie, three bags of pemmican for the use of any 
party from the Plover, or from Sir James Ross's ships, 
who might reach that establishment. At Point Separa- 
tion, also, which forms the apex of the delta of the Mac- 
kenzie, they deposited one case of pemmican and a 
bottle of memoranda, and letters for the use of Sir John 
Franklin's party, burying them in the circumference of 
20 



230 RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

a circle with a ten-feet radius, from the point of a broad 
arrow painted on a signal-post ; and they afterwards 
did the same thing, or similar, on Whale Island, at the 
mouth of the Mackenzie ; on Point Toker, in latitude 
69° 38' north, and longitude 132° 15' west ; on Cape 
Bathurst, the most northerly point between the Mac- 
kenzie and the Coppermine ; and on Cape Parry, at the 
east side of the entrance of Franklin Bay. 

The explorers encountered head winds throughout 
most of their progress of eight hundred miles or up- 
wards, from the exit of the Mackenzie to the mouth of 
the Coppermine ; and they always kept near the shore, 
and landed at least twice a day to cook, occasionally to 
hunt, often to look out from the high capes, and com- 
monly, at night, to sleep on shore. Immediately off the 
efflux of the Mackenzie they had an interview with 
about three hundred Esquimaux ; and at many subse- 
quent points they communicated with other parties, 
who were assembled on headlands to hunt whales, or 
scattered along the coast in pursuit of reindeer and 
water-fowl. The Esquimaux were confiding and frank, 
and all said that no ships had recently appeared on the 
coast ; and those west of Cape Bathurst further said 
that during the preceding six weeks they never saw 
any ice. 

One fellow alone, in answer to inquiries after white 
men, said, " A party of men are living on that island,'^ 
pointing, as he spoke, to Eichard's Island. As Rich- 
ardson had actually landed there on the preceding day, 
he ordered the interpreter to inform him that he knew 
that he was lying. He received this retort with a smile, 
and without the slightest discomposure, but did not 
repeat his assertion. Neither the Esquimaux nor the 
Dog-rib or Hare Indians feel the least shame in being 
detected in falsehood ; and they invariably practise it, 



RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 231 

if they think that they can thereby gain any of their 
petty ends. Even in their familiar intercourse with 
each other, the Indians seldom tell the truth in the first 
instance ; and if they succeed in exciting admiration or 
astonishment, their invention runs on without check. 
From the manner of the speaker, rather than by his 
words, is his truth or falsehood inferred ; and often a 
very long interrogation is necessary to elicit the real 
fact. 

" The Esquimaux," says Richardson, " are essen 
tially a littoral people, and inhabit nearly five thousand 
miles of seaboard, from the Straits of Belleisle to the 
Peninsula of Alaska ; not taking into the measurement 
the various indentations of the coast-line, nor including 
West and East Greenland, in which latter locality they 
make their nearest approach to the western coasts of the 
Old World. Throughout the great linear range here 
indicated, there is no material change in their language, 
nor any variation beyond what would be esteemed in 
England a mere provincialism. Albert, the interpreter, 
who was born on the East Main, or western shore of 
James's Bay, had no great difficulty in understanding 
and making himself understood by the Esquimaux of 
the estuary of the Mackenzie, though by the nearest 
coast-line the distance between the two localities is at 
least two thousand five hundred miles. 

" The habit of associating in numbers for the chase 
of the whale has sown among them the elements of 
civilization ; and such of them as have been taken into 
the company's service, at the fur-posts, fall readily into 
the ways of their white associates, and are more indus- 
trious, handy, and intelligent, than the Indians. The few 
interpreters of the nation that I have been acquainted 
with (four in all) were strictly honest, and adhered rigidly 
to the truth ; and I have every reason to believe that 



232 RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

within their own community the rights of property are 
held in great respect, even the, hunting-grounds of fami- 
lies being kept sacred. Yet their covetousness of the 
property of strangers, and their dexterity in thieving, 
are remarkable, and they seem to have most of the vices, 
as well as the virtues, of the Norwegian Vikings. Their 
personal bravery is conspic.uous, and they are the only 
native nation on the North American continent who 
oppose their enemies face to face in open fight. In- 
stead of flying, like the northern Indians, on the sight 
of a stranger, they did not scruple, in parties of two or 
three, to come off to our boats and enter into barter ; 
and never, on any occasion, showed the least disposi- 
tion to yield anything belonging to them through fear.'' 
The Esquimaux winter huts are thus described : 

" These buildings are generally placed on points 
where the water is deep enough for a boat to come to 
the beach, such a locality being probably selected by 
the natives to enable them to tow a whale or seal more 
closely to the place where it is to be cut up. The 
knowledge of this fact induced us generally to look for 
the buildings when we wished to land. The houses are 
constructed of drift-timber, strongly built together, and 
covered with earth to the thickness of from one to two 
feet. Light and air are admitted by a low door at one 
end ; and even this entrance is closed by a slab of sno,w 
in the winter time, when their lamps supply them with 
heat as well as light. Ten or twelve people may seat 
themselves in the area of one of these houses, though 
not comfortably ; and in the winter the imperfect admis- 
sion of fresh air, and the effluvia arising from the greasy 
bodies of a whole family, must render them most disa- 
greeable as well as unwholesome abodes. I have been 
told that when the family alone are present, the several 
members of it sit partly or even wholly naked." 



RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 233 

The explorers met floes of drift-ice for the first time 
after rounding Cape Parry, but they encountered them 
more numerously as they approached Dolphin and Union 
Strait. On the 22d of August they had a strong gale 
from the west ; and on the next morning they found 
themselves hemmed in by dense packs, extending as far 
as the eye could reach. The weather had hitherto been 
genial, but now it passed into perpetual frost, with fre- 
quent snow-storms. The expedition henceforth got on 
with great difficulty ; and when they had penetrated 
well up the west side of Coronation Gulf, they were 
engirdled by rigorous winter, and felt compelled to 
abandon their boats. They, therefore, were unable to 
fulfil a portion of their official instructions, which directed 
them to examine the western and southern shores of 
Wollaston Land, lying north-west of Coronation Gulf; 
and during eleven days, from the 2d till the 13th of 
September, they travelled by land, up the valley of the 
Coppermine, to their appointed winter home at Fort 
Confidence, at the north-eastern extremity of the Great 
Bear Lake. Next summer Sir John Richardson returned 
to England. 

In his official report to the Secretary of the Admiralty, 
Sir John says : "In the voyage between the Macken- 
zie and Coppermine, I carefully executed their lordships' 
instructions with respect to the examination of the 
coast-line, and became fully convinced that no ships 
had passed within view of the mainland. It is, indeed, 
nearly impossible that they could have done so unob- 
served by some of the numerous parties of Esquimaux 
on the look-out for whales. We were, moreover, 
informed bj^ the Esquimaux of Back's Inlet that the ice 
had been pressing on their shore nearly the whole sum- 
mer ; and its closely-packed condition when we left it, 
on the 4th of September, made it highly improbable 
20* 



284 RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

that it would open for ship navigation later in the 
season. 

" I regretted extremely that the state of the ice pre- 
vented me from crossing to Wollaston Land, and thus 
completing, in one season, the whole scheme of their 
lordships' instructions. The opening between Wollas- 
ton and Victoria Lands has always appeared to me to 
possess great interest ; for through it the flood-tide evi- 
dently sets into Coronation Gulf, diverging to the west- 
ward by the Dolphin and Union Strait, and to the east- 
ward round Cape Alexander. By the fifth clause of Sir 
John Franklin's instructions, he is directed to steer 
south-westward from Cape Walker, which would lead 
him nearly in the direction of the strait in question. If 
Sir John found Barrow's Strait as open as when Sir 
Edward Parry passed it on four previous occasions, I 
am convinced that (complying as exactly as he could 
with his instructions, and without looking into Welling- 
ton Sound, or other openings either to the south or north 
of Barrow's Strait) he pushed directly west to Cape 
Walker, and from thence south-westwards. If so, the 
ships were probably shut up on some of the passages 
between Victoria, Banks', and Wollaston Lands. 

'' Being apprehensive that the boats I left on the 
coast would be broken up by the Esquimaux, and being, 
moreover, of opinion that the examination of the open- 
ing in question might be safely and efficiently performed 
in the only remaining boat I had fit for the transport 
from Bear Lake to the Coppermine, I determined to 
intrust this important service to Mr. Rae, who volun- 
teered, and whose ability and zeal in the cause I cannot 
too highly commend. He selected an excellent crew, 
all of them experienced voyageurs, and capable of find- 
ing their way back to Bear Lake without guides, should 
any unforeseen accident deprive them of their leader. 



SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 235 

In the month of March (1849) a sufficient supply of 
pemmican, and other necessary stores, with the equip- 
ments of the boat, were transported over the snow on 
dog-sledges to a navigable part of the Kendall River, 
and left there under the charge of two men. As soon 
as the Dease broke up in June, Mr. Rae would follow, 
with the boat, the rest of the crew, and a party of Indian 
hunters, and would descend the Coppermine River about 
the middle of July, at which time the sea generally 
begins to break up. He would then, as soon as possi- 
ble, cross from Cape Krusenstern to Wollaston Land, 
and endeavor to penetrate to the northward, erecting 
signal-columns, and making deposits on conspicuous 
headlands, and especially on the north shore of Banks' 
Land, should he be fortunate enough to attain that 
coast. He was further instructed not to hazard the 
safety of his party by remaining too long on the north 
side of Dolphin and Union Strait, and to be guided in 
his movements by the season, the state of the ice, and 
such intelligence as he might obtain from the Esqui- 
maux. He was also requested to engage one or more 
families of Indian hunters to pass the summer of 1850 
on the banks of the Coppermine River, to be ready to 
assist any party that may direct their course that way.'' 
Mr. Rae repeated his elaborate and perilous mission in 
the summer of 1850. 

The third and most important of the three searching 
expeditions of 1848 was the marine one conducted by 
Captain Sir James Clarke Ross. This comprised two 
superb ships, — the Enterprise, of four hundred and sev- 
enty tons and seventy men, and the Investigator, of 
four hundred and twenty tons and seventy men, both 
as strong as they could be made, and furnished with 
every possible appliance. Each was provided with a 
screw-propelled steam-launch, thirty-one and a half feet 



236 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 

long, and capable of an average speed of eleven miles 
an hour. Captain E. J. Bird was appointed to the com- 
mand of the Investigator. The ships were instructed 
to proceed together to the head of Barrow's Strait ; and 
the Enterprise, if possible, to push on to a wintering- 
place about Winter Harbor or Banks' Land, while the 
Investigator should try to find harborage somewhere 
about G-arnier Bay or Cape Rennell. Parties were to 
go from the Enterprise along respectively the eastern 
and the western shores of Banks' Land, to cross Sir 
John Richardson's expedition on the mainland ; and 
parties from the Investigator were to explore the coasts 
of North Somerset and Boothia, 

The expedition left the Thames on the 12th of May, 
1848, and entered Baffin's Bay early in July. A letter 
was written by Sir James Clarke Ross, from the Danish 
settlement of Upernavik, on the 12th of July, stating 
that if, after passing a second winter at or near Port 
Leopold, he should get no intelligence of Sir John 
Franklin and his party, he would send the Investigator 
home to England, and prosecute a further search in the 
Enterprise alone. The Lords of the Admiralty took 
alarm at the possible, or even probable, consequences 
of this excessive heroism, and ordered the North Star 
store-ship, under command of Mr. James Saunders, to 
get ready with all speed to take out instructions and 
supplies to the expedition. Her prime object was to 
be the replenishing of the expedition's stock of pro- 
visions, and the enjoining of the Investigator not to 
return to England in the way Sir James G. Ross had 
indicated, but to remain in company with the Enter- 
prise ; and if the North Star should not succeed in 
promptly fulfilling this object, she was instructed to 
land the supplies at the furthest prominent point she 
could readily reach, and by all means to keep herself 



SIR J. C. ROSSES EXPEDITION. 237 

free from besetment in the ice, and to return before the 
close of the season. She sailed from the Thames on the 
16th of May, 1849, and did not return that season ; and 
she also became a subject of much public anxiety. 

The Enterprise and the Investigator left Upernavik 
on the 13th of July, 1848 ; and, after running through 
an intricate archipelago near the mainland, they arrived, 
on the 20th, off Cape Shackleton, and there made fast 
to a grounded iceberg. They were joined there by the 
Lord Gambler whaling-ship, whose master informed them 
that, having run to the southward with the rest of the 
whalers, and having carefully examined the pack, he 
had found it all so close, compact, and heavy, as not to 
afford the slightest hope of any ship being able to find 
an opening through it that season to the west. He had, 
therefore, returned to the north, and expected that all 
the other whalers would soon follow him ; and he had a 
very confident hope that he should get round the north 
end of the pack by the first week of August. But '' the 
middle ice," as this great barrier along Baffin's Bay is 
called, has ever put the wits of the whale-fishers to the 
severest trial. The earliest date at which it has been 
passed in any year is the 12th of June ; the latest at 
which it has been found impassable is the 9th of Septem- 
ber ; and the average date of the first ship of the season 
passing it is about the 13th of July. But in 1848 it 
could be passed only with extreme difficulty, and only 
by far rounding to the north ; and, as was afterwards 
ascertained, the first and almost only vessel which then 
got past it was the Prince of Wales, of Hull, on the 6th 
of August, about latitude 75°. 

Early on the morning of the 21st of July, the expedi- 
tion cast off from the iceberg, and began to tow their 
way through loose streams of ice toward some lanes of 
water in the distance. But both on this day and on the 



238 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 

following few days they made slow progress, and were 
often in difficulty. On the morning of the 20th, when 
they were off the Three Islands of Baffin, in latitude "74° 
north, at the clearing away of a fog, they saw the Lord 
Gambler at some distance, standing under all sail to the 
southward — the unusually bad state of the ice having 
overturned her master's hopes, and altered his purpose. 
They pursued their course northward amid much per- 
plexity ; and, though still fully expecting to bore their 
way through the pack, they were so excessively retarded 
by calms and barriers, as soon to lose all hope of being 
able to accomplish any considerable part of their mission 
before the setting in of winter. They spared no exer- 
tions, but forced a progress, and even drove on at the 
expense of danger. 

On the 20th of August, during a strong breeze from 
the north-east, the ships, under all sail, bored through 
a moderately thick pack of ice, studded with perilously 
large masses ; and they sustained severe shocks, yet, 
happily, did not receive any serious damage. They 
gained the open water on the afternoon of that day, in 
latitude 75^° north, and longitude 68° west, and then 
steered direct for Pond's Bay. That, as is well known, 
is the grand scene of the whale-fishery ; and thither the 
expedition went to inquire of any whaler's crew who 
might have got across to the west, and also of the 
Esquimaux who annually visit that locality, whether 
they had seen anything of the missing adventurers. 

On the 22d of August they approached the shore, 
about ten miles south of Pond's Bay, and saw the main 
pack so closely pressed home to the land, some three or 
four miles further south, as to leave no room for ships 
or boats to pass. They next stood in to the bay, and 
paused within half a mile of the points on which the 
Esquimaux are known to have their summer residences ; 



SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 239 

and they fired guns every half-hour, and closely exam- 
ined every part of the shore with their glasses, but did 
not get sight of a single human being. - They then went 
slowly to the northward, and sometimes could not hold 
their own with the current, and always kept so close to 
the land that neither boats nor persons could escape 
their notice, yet still were unsuccessful. 

On the 26th they arrived off" Possession Bay, at the 
south side of the entrance of Lancaster Sound. A party 
there went ashore to search for traces of Sir John Frank- 
lin having touched at that general point of rendezvous, 
but they found nothing except a paper recording the 
visit of Sir Edward Parry, in 1819. The expedition now 
sailed along the coast of Lancaster Sound, keeping close 
in-shore, scrutinizing all the seaboard both from the 
deck and from the mast-head, and fully expecting every 
hour to see those of whom they were in search. Every 
day they threw overboard, from each ship, a cask con- 
taining papers of information of all their proceedings ; 
and in every fog they periodically fired guns, in every 
time of darkness they burned rockets and blue lights, 
and at all times they kept the ships under such easy 
sail that any boat seeing the signals might have reached 
them. The drift of the information in the casks told the 
missing adventurers that no assistance could be given 
them at Pond's Bay, or anywhere else on the west coast 
of Baffin's Bay ; that the Enterprise and the Investi- 
gator were on their way to form a depot of provisions 
at Port Leopold ; and that, if the adventurers would 
go on to that place, they would either find one of the 
ships there, or see, along with the provisions, a notice 
of where she might be found. 

On the 1st of September the expedition arrived off 
Cape York, at the east side of the entrance of Prince 
Regent's Inlet. A party was there sent ashore, under 



240 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 

very difficult circumstances, to seek for Sir John Frank- 
lin's company, or for traces of them, and to set up a 
conspicuous mark, with a paper containing similar in- 
formation to that in the casks. From Cape York the 
expedition stood over toward North-East Cape, till they 
came to the edge of a pack about fourteen miles broad, 
lying in the way to Leopold Island, and too dense for 
them to penetrate. They wished to get with all possi- 
ble speed to Port Leopold, to fulfil the promise made in 
their notices, and were glad to observe that the pack 
which now arrested them was still in motion, and might 
be expected soon to go to pieces under some favorable 
change. But, that no available time might be spent in 
inaction, they stood away, in the mean time, to the 
north shore of Barrow's Strait, to examine its numer- 
ous inlets, and to seek for a retreat harbor. They 
thoroughly explored Maxwell Bay, and several smaller 
indentations ; and they got so near the entrance of Wel- 
lington Channel as to see that it was firmly and impen- 
etrably barred from side to side by ice, which had not 
been broken up that season. Even Barrow's Strait was 
embarrassed by a greater quantity of ice than had ever 
before been seen in it at the same period of the year. 

They now stood to the south-west to seek for a har- 
bor near Cape Rennell ; but they found a heavy body 
of ice extending from the west of Cornwallis's Island, in 
a compact mass, to Leopold Island. They coasted along 
this pack during stormy and foggy weather, and had 
difficulty during the nights in keeping the ships from 
being beset. With the thermometer every night at 15°, 
young ice formed so rapidly, and became so thick, as to 
defeat all their efforts to pass through some of even the 
looser streams. Yet, after several days of anxious and 
arduous toil, though the pack still lingered about Leo- 
pold Island and North-East Cape, they succeeded in 



SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 241 

getting through it, and entered the harbor of Port Leo- 
pold on the 11th September ; and, had they not got in 
on that day, they would not have got in at all ; for, on 
the following night, the main pack came close home 
to the land, and completely sealed the mouth of the 
harbor. 

They were happy in having reached Port Leopold, 
both for their own sake and for the sake of their mis- 
sion. They had doubted whether the anchorage would 
be good ; but they found it excellent, and saw at once 
that there could not be a better wintering place for the 
Investigator. Nor could there have been a fitter local- 
ity for making a grand deposit of provisions, and 
preparing a temporary retreat for any of Sir John 
Franklin's company who might be entangled among the 
intricacies of the archipelago. Port Leopold is situ- 
ated at the junction of the four great channels of Lan- 
caster Sound, Barrow's Strait, Wellington Channel, and 
Prince Regent's Inlet, and lies closely adjacent to any 
route which Sir John Franklin could have been likely to 
pursue in the event of his having had to retrogress from 
the vicinity of Cape Walker ; so that a lodgment in it 
by the present expedition could scarcely escape the 
notice of any of Sir John's company who might happen 
to be proceeding from any part whatever of the archi- 
pelago toward Baffin's Bay. 

An effort was made to bring the Enterprise out, with 
the view of her going westward to some harbor nearer 
Cape Walker. But she was irretrievably ice-bound. 
The pack which closed the harbor's mouth never once 
afforded a chance for the egress of even a boat ; and 
across the isthmus, as far as could be discerned from the 
neighboring heights, the same extensive mass of heavy 
hummocky ice, which repelled and limited the expedi- 
tion's movements before entering, remained immovable, 
21 



242 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 

and formed a firm barrier all the way over to the 
shore of North Somerset. Even if the Enterprise had 
g-pt out, she could not have proceeded far ; and in all 
probability would either have been perilously beset in 
the pack, or compelled to sail away from it to England. 
On the 12th October, therefore, the two ships were laid 
fast in their wintering position, within two hundred 
yards of each other. 

The earliest days after entering the harbor were de- 
voted to the landing of a good supply of provisions 
upon Whaler Point. In this service the steam-launch 
proved of most eminent value, not only carrying a large 
cargo herself, but towiug two deeply-laden cutters at 
the rate of four or five knots through the sheet of ice 
which then covered the harbor, and which no boat, 
unaided by steam, could have penetrated beyond her 
own length. The crews spent the dead of winter in a 
similar manner to those of former Arctic expeditions. 
But they probably felt much depressed by thinking on 
the fate of those whom they had been unsuccessfully 
seeking, and they had to contend against a rigorous 
cold, prolonged unusually far into the spring ; so that, 
though they had more comforts, better appliances, and 
much richer fruits of experience, than the crews of Sir 
Edward Parry's and Sir John Ross's ships, they were 
not by any means so healthy. During the winter a 
great many white foxes were taken alive in traps, and, 
as they are well known to travel great distances in 
search of food, they were fitted with copper collars, 
containing engraved notices of the position of the ships 
and depots of provisions, and then set at liberty, in the 
hope that they would be caught by the crews of the 
Erebus and the Terror. 

In April and the e^rlj part of May short journej^s 
were made to dej^osit small stores of provisions west- 



Sm J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 243 

ward of Cape Clarence, and southward of Cape Sep- 
pings. On the 15th May a party of thirteen, headed by 
Sir James 0. Ross, and taking with them forty days' 
provision, and a supply of clothes, blanj^ets, and other 
necessaries, on two sledges, started on an exploratory 
journey to the south. They were accompanied for five 
days by a fatigue party of nearly thirty, under Captain 
Bird. Their object was to penetrate as far as possible 
in the direction which Sir John Franklin was instructed 
first to pursue, and to make a close scrutiny of every 
bay and inlet in which any ships might have found 
shelter. They got on with difficulty, and did their work 
with much toil, yet went resolutely forward. 

The north shore of North Somerset trends slightly to 
the northward of west, till it attains its highest latitude, 
the highest latitude of continental America, a few miles 
beyond Cape Rennell ; it thence trends slightly to the 
southward of west till it rounds Cape Bunny ; and then 
it suddenly assumes a direction nearly due south. From 
high land adjacent to Cape Bunny they obtained a very 
extensive view, and observed that all Wellington Chan- 
nel on the north, and all the space between Cape Bunny 
and Cape Walker on the west, were occupied by very 
heavy hummocky ice ; but that the frozen expanse south- 
ward, along the west flank of North Somerset, was 
smoother. They proceeded to the south, tracing all the 
indentations of the coast, and heroically enduring great 
exposure and fatigue, but not without the pain and 
delay of several of their number becoming useless from 
lameness and debility. They stopped on the 5th of June. 
They were then too weak to go further, and had con- 
sumed more than half of- their provisions ; and they 
encamped for a day's rest, preparatory to their return. 

Their brave leader and two of the men, however, 
went onward to a vantage-ground about eight or nine 



244 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 

miles distant. This extreme point of the journey is the 
western extremity of a small high peninsula, situated in 
latitude '72° 38' north, and longitude 95° 40' west. The 
atmosphere at the time was peculiarly clear, and would 
have carried the eye to land of any great elevation at 
the distance of one hundred miles. But the most dis- 
tant visible cape in the direction toward Boothia and 
Victoria Land was not further off than fifty miles, and 
lay nearly due south. Several small bays and inlets 
intervened, and though, perhaps, not forming a contin- 
uous sweep of the sea, they prove Prince Eegent's Inlet 
at Cresswell and Brentford Bays to be separated from 
the western ocean by a very narrow isthmus — a dis- 
tinct natural boundary between North Somerset and 
Boothia. 

The party resting at the encampment were not idle. 
Lieut. McClintock, who headed them, took some mag- 
netic observations, which had great value, on account 
of the near vicinity of the place to the magnetic pole. 
Two of the men pierced the ice, and found it to be 
eight feet thick, and set in a stick for ascertaining the 
state of the tides ; and all the others who could work 
erected a large cairn, into which was put a copper 
cylinder, containing all requisite information for the 
guidance of any of Sir John Franklin^s company who 
might journey along that coast. The time for expecting 
those missing ones there that season, on the supposition 
of their having abandoned their ships in the vicinity of 
Melville Island, had almost or altogether passed. The 
thaw had commenced, the suitable conditions for travel- 
ling were over, and the present explorers had, at least, 
the satisfaction of knowing that no wanderers from the 
Erebus and the Terror then lay unheeded or perishing 
on the coast of North Somerset. 

The explorers began their return journey on the 6th 



SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 245 

June. They forced their way through various diflS- 
culties, and arrived at the ships on the 23d. They 
were so worn and injured, that every man of them, from 
some cause or other, went into the doctor's hands for 
two or three weeks. One of the assistant surgeons, 
too, had died ; several men of both crews were severely 
ailing ; and the general health was far from good. 

During the absence of the large exploring party in 
North Somerset, three small ones were despatched by 
Captain Bird in other directions. One, under the com- 
mand of Lieut. Barnard, went to the north shore of 
Barrow's Strait ; another, under the command of Lieut. 
Browne, went to the east shore of Prince Eegent's 
Inlet ; and the third, under the command of Lieut. Eob- 
inson, went to the west shore of that inlet. These 
parties were comparatively a short time away ; yet 
all — especially the last, who penetrated several miles 
beyond Fury Beach — suffered from snow-blindness, 
sprained ankles, and debility. 

Preparations were now made for leaving Port Leo- 
pold. The season was far advanced, and a strong 
desire was felt to have the ships as soon as possible set 
free, in order to push them on toward the west. But 
something further was first done to extend the appli- 
ances of the place as a refuge for the missing adven- 
turers. A house was built of the spare spars of the 
ships, and covered with such of the housing-cloths as 
could be wanted. The depot of provisions and fuel 
was raised to a sufficient quantity to serve for a 
twelvemonth. And the Investigator's steam-launch 
was lengthened seven feet, and made a fine vessel, 
capable of conveying the whole of Sir John Franklin's 
party to the whale-ships. 

The crews were ill able to work the ships out of the 
harbor, and to set them once more before the breeze ; 
21* 



246 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 

but they went with a will to the task. The season was 
far advanced, and exceedingly unpromising, and seemed 
clearly to demand the utmost promptitude and strenu- 
ousness of exertion. At a time when most other navi- 
gable parts of the Arctic seas were open, Port Leopold 
continued as close as in the middle of winter. Not a 
foot of water was to be seen on the surface of the sur- 
rounding ice, except only along the line of gravel about 
the harbor's mouth ; and small prospect existed that 
any natural opening would occur. The crews were 
obliged to cut a way out with saws. All hands that 
were at all able went to work, and made a canal two 
miles in length, and sufficiently wide to let the ships 
pass outward to the adjacent sound. They did not 
complete this till the 15th of August, and then had the 
mortification to see that the ice to seaward remained, to 
all appearance, as firmly fixed as in the winter. But it 
was wasting away along the shores, and it soon broke 
up, and gave promise of a navigable channel. The 
ships got out of the harbor on the 28th of August, 
exactly one fortnight less than a twelvemonth from the 
time when they entered it. 

They proceeded toward the north shore of Barrow's 
Strait, with the view of making further examination of 
Wellington Channel, and of scrutinizing the coasts and 
inlets westward to Melville Island. But they were 
arrested about twelve miles from the shore by fixed 
land-ice, which had remained unbroken since the pre- 
vious season, and which appeared to extend away to 
the western horizon in a uniform heavy sheet. They 
were in a loose pack, struggling with blocks and streams 
as they best could, and they kept hovering about the 
spot which afforded the greatest probability of an open- 
ing. But, on the 1st of September, the loose pack was 
suddenly put in commotion by a strong wind, and it 



Sm J. C. ROSS'S- EXPEDITION. 247 

came down upon them and beset them. During two or 
three days the heavy masses at times severely squeezed 
them, and ridges of hummocks were thrown up all 
around them, and then the temperature fell nearly to 
zero, and congealed the whole body of ice into a solid 
mass. The crew of the Enterprise were unable, for 
some days, to unship the rudder, and when at last they 
released it, by means of the laborious operation of saw- 
ing away the hummocks which clove to the stern, they 
found it twisted and damaged ; and, at the same time, 
the ship was so much strained as to increase the leakage 
from three inches in a fortnight to fourteen inches in a 
day. 

The ice now remained for some days stationary. The 
lighter pieces had been so interlaced and imbricated by 
pressure, as to form one entire sheet across the whole 
width of Barrow's Strait, and away eastward and west- 
ward to the horizon ; and all the blocks and strata below 
them were so firmly cemented by the extreme severity 
of the temperature as to seem little likely to break up 
again that season. The ships appeared fixed for the 
winter ; and who could tell whether they might not be 
exposed to a series of as terrific perils as those which 
so often menaced the Terror with destruction in her 
awful ice-voyage of 1836 ? 

On the wind shifting to the west, the crews, with a 
mixture of hope and anxiety, beheld the whole body 
of ice beginning to drive to the eastward, at the rate 
of eight or ten miles a day. They made all possible 
efforts to help themselves, but made them in vain, for 
no human power could have moved either of the ships a 
single inch. The field of ice which held them fast in 
its centre was more than fifty miles in circumference. 
It carried them along the south shore of Lancaster 
Sound, and then went down the west side of Baffin's 



248 sm J. c. ROSS'S expedition. 

Bay, till they were abreast of Pond's Bay, and there it 
threatened to precipitate them on a barrier of icebergs. 
But, just in the very crisis of their alarm, it was rent, 
as if by some unseen power, into innumerable fragments, 
and they were set almost miraculously free. 

The crews sprang from despair to hope, and from 
inaction to energy. All sail was set, and warps were 
run out from each quarter to work the ships past the 
heavy floes. The Investigator got into open water on 
the 24th, and the Enterprise on the 25th. " It is impos- 
sible," says Ross, "to convey any idea of the sensation 
we experienced when we found ourselves once more at 
liberty ; many a heart poured forth its praises and 
thanksgivings to Almighty God for this unlooked for 
deliverance.'' The harbors of Baffin's Bay were now 
all closed by ice, and the course to the west was barred 
by the pack from which the ships had just been liberated. 
The expedition, therefore, had no alternative but to 
return to England, and they arrived off Scarborough on 
the 3d of November, 1849. Thus ended the third of 
the government explorations in search of Sir John 
Franklin. 

Lieutenant PuUen, who, it will be remembered, was 
despatched from the Plover on the western coast, and 
ordered to extend his search to the mouth of the Mac- 
kenzie, ascended that river and reached Fort Simpson 
on the 13th of October. Here he wintered, and, while 
on his way to York Factory, the following spring, re- 
ceived instructions by express to attempt a passage in 
boats across the sea to Melville Island. He immediately 
hurried back, and, on being supplied with four thousand 
five hundred pounds of pemmican and jerked venison 
by Rae, descended the Mackenzie. The season of 1850 
proved more severe, however, than that of the previous 
year. Pullen found the sea, from the Mackenzie to 



SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 



249 



Cape Bathurst, covered with unbroken ice, a small chan- 
nel only existing in-shore, through which he threaded 
his way to the vicinity of the cape. Failing in finding 
a passage out to sea to the north of Cape Bathurst, he 
remained in its vicinity, watching the ice for an open- 
ing, until the approach of winter compelled him to 
return to the Mackenzie. He had reached the sea on 
the 22d of July, and he did not quit it till the 1st of 
September. As he ascended the Mackenzie, ice was 
driving rapidly down. "It w^as one continued drift of 
ice and heavy snow-storms." He reached Fort Simp- 
son on the 5th of October, and arrived in England to 
take command of the North Star, and join the expedition 
under Sir E. Belcher. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

OPIMOKS IN BEGARD TO THE FATE OF FRANKLIN. CLIMATE. — RESOURCES 

OF GAME. REWARDS OFFERED. REPORTS FROM WHALERS. RE- 
NEWED SEARCHES. COLLINSON AND m'cLTJRE. RAE'S INSTRUCTIONS. 

— OTHER EXPEDITIONS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. — GRINNELL's EXPEDI- 
TION. MEETING IN THE ARCTIC SEAS- — TRACES OF FRANKLIN. 

GRAVES. — SLEDGING PARTIES. — RETURN HOME. 

It was the opinion of Sir John Richardson, the former 
companion of Franklin, that his plans were to shape his 
course, in the first instance, for the neighborhood of 
Cape Walker, and to push to the westward in that 
parallel ; or, if that could not be accomplished, to make 
his way southwards, to the channel discovered on the 
north coast of the continent, and so on to Behring's 
Strait ; failing success in that quarter, he meant to 
retrace his course to Wellington Sound, and attempt a 
passage northwards of Parry's Islands ; and if foiled 
there also, to descend Regent's Inlet, and seek the 
passage along the coast discovered by Messrs. Dease 
and Simpson. 

Captain Fitzjames, the second in command under Sir 
John Franklin, was much inclined to try the passage 
northward of Parry's Islands ; and he would, no doubt, 
endeavor to persuade Sir John to pursue this course, if 
they failed to the southward. In a private letter to 
Sir John Barrow, dated January, 1845, Fitzjames writes : 
'' It does not appear clear to me what led Parry down 
Prince Regent Inlet, after having got as far as Melville 
Island before. The north-west passage is certainly to 



FATE OF FRANKLIN. 251 

be gone through by Barrow's Strait, but whether south 
or north of Parry's Group, remains to be proved. I am 
for going north, edging north-west till in longitude 140°, 
if possible.'' 

Captain Sir John Ross records, in February, 1847, his 
opinion that the expedition was frozen up beyond Mel- 
ville Island, from the known intentions of Sir John 
Franklin to put his ships into the drift-ice at the western 
end of Melville Island ; a risk which was deemed in the 
highest degree imprudent by Lieutenant Parry and the 
officers of the expedition of 1819-20, with ships of a less 
draught of water, and in every respect better calculated 
to sustain the pressure of the ice, and other dangers to 
which they must be exposed. The expedition certainly 
did not succeed in passing Behring's Strait ; and, if not 
totally lost, must have been carried by the drift-ice to 
the southward, on land seen at a great distance in that 
direction, from which the accumulation of ice behind 
them would, as in Ross's own case, forever prevent the 
return of the ships. When we remember with what 
extreme difficulty Ross's party travelled three hundred 
miles over much smoother ice after they abandoned their 
vessel, it appears very doubtful whether Franklin and 
his men, one hundred and thirty-eight in number, could 
possibly travel six hundred miles. 

In the contingency of the ships having penetrated 
some considerable distance to the south-west of Cape 
Walker, and having been hampered and crushed in the 
narrow channels of the archipelago, which there are 
reasons for believing occupies the space between Victo- 
ria, Wollaston, and Banks's Lands, it is remarked by 
Sir John Richardson, that such accidents among ice are 
seldom so sudden but that the boats of one or of both 
ships, with provisions, can be saved ; and, in such an 
event, the survivors would either return to Lancaster 



252 FATE OF FRANKLIN. 

Strait, or make for the continent, according to their 
nearness. 

Colonel Sabine remarks, in a letter dated Woolwich, 
5th of May, 1847 : "It was Sir John Franklin's inten- 
tion, if foiled at one point, to try, in succession, all the 
probable openings into a more navigable part of the 
Polar Sea. The range of coast is considerable in which 
memorials of the ships' progress would have to be 
sought for, extending from Melville Island, in the west, 
to the great sound at the head of Baffin's Bay, in the 
east." 

Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, in his report to the Lords 
Commissioners of the Admiralty, Nov. 24, 1849, ob- 
serves : " There are four ways only in which it is likely 
that the Erebus and Terror would have been lost — by 
fire, by sunken rocks, by storm, or by being crushed be- 
tween two fields of ice. Both vessels would scarcely have 
taken fire together ; if one of them had struck on a rock, 
the other would have avoided the danger. Storms in 
those narrow seas, encumbered with ice, raise no swell, 
and could produce no such disaster ; and, therefore, by 
the fourth cause alone could the two vessels have been 
at once destroyed ; and, even in that case, the crews 
would have escaped upon the ice — as happens every 
year to the whalers ; — they would have saved their 
loose boats, and reached some part of the American 
shores. As no traces of any such event have been 
found on any part of those shores, it may, therefore, be 
safely affirmed that one ship, at least, and both the 
crews, are still in existence ; and, therefore, the point 
where they now are is the great matter for consid- 
eration. 

" Their orders would have carried them towards Mel- 
ville Island, and then out to the westward, where it is 
therefore probable that they are entangled amongst 



FATE OF FRANKLIN. 253 

islands and ice. For, should they have been arrested 
at some intermediate place, — for instance, Cape Walker, 
or at one of the northern chain of islands, — they would, 
undoubtedly, in the course of the three following years, 
have contrived some method of sending notices of 
their position to the shores of North Somerset or to 
Barrow's Strait. 

" If they had reached much to the southward of 
Banks's Land, they would surely have communicated with 
the tribes on Mackenzie River ; and if, failing to get to the 
westward or southward, they had returned with the 
intention of penetrating through Wellington Channel, 
they would have detached parties on the ice towards 
Barrow's Strait, in order to have deposited statements 
of their intentions. The general conclusion, therefore, 
remains that they are still locked up in the archipelago 
to the westward of Melville Island." 

Captain Sir George Back, in a letter to the Secretary 
of the Admiralty, December 1st, 1849, says : " You 
will be pleased, sir, to impress on my Lords Commis- 
sioners that I wholly reject all and every idea of any 
attempts on the part of Sir John Franklin to send boats 
or detachments over the ice to any point of the mainland 
eastward of the Mackenzie River, because I can say, 
from experience, that no toil-worn and exhausted party 
could have the least chance of existence by going 
there. On the other hand, from my knowledge of Sir 
John Franklin, — having been three times on discovery 
together, — I much doubt if he would quit his ship at 
all, except in a boat ; for any attempt to cross the ice 
a long distance on foot would be tempting death ; and 
it is too laborious a task to sledge far over such an 
uneven surface as those regions generally present. That 
great mortality must have occurred, and that one ship 
may be lost, are greatly to be feared : and, as on all 
22 



254 FATE OF FRANKLIN. 

former expeditioDS, if the survivors are paralyzed by 
the depressing attacks of scurvy, it would then be 
impossible for them, however desirous they might be, to 
leave the ship, which must thus become their last most 
anxious abode. 

'' If, however, open water should have allowed Sir 
John Franklin to have resorted to his boats, then I am 
persuaded he would make for either the Mackenzie 
Eiver, or, which is far more likely, from the almost cer- 
tainty he must have felt of finding provision. Cape 
Clarence and Fury Point. I am aware that the whole 
chances of life, in this painful case, depend on food ; but 
when I reflect on Sir John Franklin's former extraor- 
dinary preservation under miseries and trials of the most 
severe description, living often on scraps of old leather 
and other refuse, I cannot despair of his finding the 
means to prolong existence till aid be happily sent 
him.'' 

In regard to the advantages of an exploration by the 
way of Behring's Strait, Sir John Eichardson writes : 

" The climate of Arctic America improves in a sensi- 
ble manner with an increase of western longitude. 
On the Mackenzie, on the 135th meridian, the sum- 
mer, is warmer than in any district of the continent 
in the same parallel ; and it is still finer, and the 
vegetation more luxuriant, on the banks of the Yucon, 
on the 150th meridian. This superiority of climate 
leads me to infer that ships well fortified against drift- 
ice will find the navigation of the Arctic seas more 
practicable in its western portion than it has been found 
to the eastward. This inference is supported by my 
own personal experience, as far as it goes. I met with 
no ice in the month of August, on my late voyage, till I 
attained the 123d meridian, and which I was led, from 



FATE OF FRANKLIN. 255 

that circumstance, to suppose coincided with the west- 
ern limits of Parry's Archipelago. 

" The greater facility of navigating from the west has 
been powerfully advocated by others on former occa- 
sions ; and the chief, perhaps the only reason why the 
attempt to penetrate the Polar Sea from that quarter 
has not been resumed since the time of Cook is, that 
the length of the previous voyage to Behring's Strait 
would considerably diminish the store of provisions ; 
but the facilities of obtaining supplies in the Pacific arc 
now so augmented, that this objection has no longer the 
same force.'' 

It was urged that, though the crews of the Erebus 
and the Terror had provisions with them for only three 
years, they could make these serve, by reduced allow- 
ance, for a somewhat longer period, and would in all 
probability obtain large additions to them by means of 
their guns. The Arctic regions, far from being so des- 
titute of animal life as might be supposed from the bleak 
and inhospitable character of the climate, are proverbial 
for the boundless profusion of various species of the 
animal kingdom, which are to be met with in different 
localities during a great part of the year. 

The air is often darkened by innumerable flocks of 
Arctic and blue gulls, the ivory gull, or snow-bird, the 
kittiwake, the fulmar petrel, snow-geese, terns, coons, 
dovekies, &c. The cetaceous animals comprise the 
great Greenland whale, the sea-unicorn, or narwhal, 
the white whale, or beluga, the morse, or walrus, and 
the seal. There are also plenty of porpoises occasion- 
ally to be met with ; and, although these animals may 
not be the best of food, yet they can be eaten. Of the 
land animals, we may instance the polar bear, the musk- 
ox, the reindeer, the Arctic fox, and wolves. 

Parry obtained nearly four thousand pounds' weight 



256 FATE OF FRANKLIN. 

of animal food during his winter residence at Melville 
Island ; Ross nearly the same quantity from birds alone, 
when wintering at Port Leopold. 

Sir John Richardson, speaking of the amount of food 
to be obtained in the polar region, says : " Deer migrate 
over the ice in the spring from the main shore to Vic- 
toria and Wollaston Lands in large herds, and return 
in the autumn. These lands are also the breeding- 
places of vast flocks of snow-geese ; so that, with ordi- 
nary skill in hunting, a large supply of food might be 
procured on their shores, in the months of June, 
July, and August. Seals are also numerous in those 
seas, and are easily shot, their curiosity rendering them 
a ready prey to a boat-party." In these ways, and by 
fishing, the stock of provisions might be greatly aug- 
mented ; and we have the recent example of Mr. Rae, 
who passed a severe winter on the very barren shores 
of Repulse Bay, with no other fuel than the withered 
tufts of a herbaceous andromada, and maintained a 
numerous party on the spoils of the chase alone for a 
whole year. 

With an empty stomach the power of resisting exter- 
nal cold is greatly impaired ; but when the process of 
digestion is going on vigorously, even with compara- 
tively scanty clothing, the heat of the body is preserved. 
There is, in the winter time, in high latitudes, a craving 
for fat or oleaginous food ; and for such occasions the 
flesh of seals, walruses, or bears, forms a useful article 
of diet. Captain Cook says that the walrus is a sweet 
and wholesome article of food. Whales and seals would 
also furnish light and fuel. The necessity for increased 
food in very cold weather is not so great when the 
people do not work. 

In March, 1848, the British Admiralty announced 
their intention of rewarding the crews of any whaling- 



REWARDS OFFERED. 257 

ships that brought accurate information of the missing 
expedition, with the sum of one hundred guineas or 
more, according to circumstances. Lady Franklin, also, 
about the same time offered rewards of two thousand 
and three thousand pounds, to be distributed among the 
owner, officers, and crew, discovering and affording 
relief to her husband, or making extraordinary exertions 
for the above object, and, if required, bringing Sir John 
Franklin and his party to England. 

On the 23d of March, 1849, the British government 
offered a reward of twenty thousand pounds "to such 
private ship, or by distribution among such private 
ships, or to any exploring party or parties, of any coun- 
try, as might, in the judgment of the Board of Admiralty, 
have rendered efficient assistance to Sir John Franklin, 
his ships, or their crews, and might have contributed 
directly to extricate them from the ice.'^ This, also, 
was meant mainly for the whalers, but was not pro- 
mulged till most of them had sailed, and had no adapta- 
tion to compensate owners and masters and crews pro- 
portionately to their losses on the fishery, and, there- 
fore, did not produce any effect. 

In the spring of 1849 Mr. Parker, master of the 
whaling-ship Truelove, carried out from Lady Franklin 
a supply of provisions and coals for the possible use of 
the missing expedition, and landed them on the con- 
spicuous promontory of Cape Hay, on the south side of 
Lancaster Sound. 

In 1849 Dr. Goodsir, brother of the assistant surgeon 
of the Erebus, embarked in the whaling-ship Advice, of 
Dundee, on her annual trip to Baffin's Bay, in the hope 
that he might get early intelligence of the missing expe- 
dition. Mr. William Penny, the master of the Advice, 
was well known for enterprise and energy, and had 
made strenuous efforts, in 1834, to assist Sir John Ross 
22* 



258 COLLINSON AND M'CLURE. 

and his party, and now felt fervid and generous zeal to 
be useful in the affair of Sir John Franklin. They pro- 
ceeded in the ordinary manner of a whaling cruise, yet 
penetrated into Lancaster Sound, and proposed to go as 
far as Prince Regent's Inlet ; but were stopped, on the 
4th of August, by a firm, compact barrier, extending 
quite across, in crescentic outline, from Cape York, on 
the south, to the vicinity of Burnet's Inlet, on the north. 
They were only seven days within sight of the shores of 
Lancaster Sound, and saw few other parts of them than 
such as had been closely scrutinized by the Enterprise 
and the Investigator ; yet they searched them with a keen 
eye, and deposited on them several conspicuous notices. 

The demand for new researches now became pressing. 
Three great divisions of search were adopted. These 
corresponded, in general sphere and character, to the 
three primary searching expeditions of 1848. One was 
marine, by way of Behring's Strait ; another was over- 
land, to the central northern coasts ; and the third was 
marine, by way of Baffin's Bay. 

The ships Enterprise and Investigator were refitted 
with all possible speed, to go round South America, and 
up to Behring's Strait. Captain Richard Collinson was 
put in command of the Enterprise, and Commander 
M'Clure, who had served as first lieutenant of the Enter- 
prise in the recent expedition under Sir James C. Ross, 
was put in command of the Investigator. The ships 
were provisioned for three years, and supplied with bal- 
loons, blasting appliances, ice-saws, and many other 
contrivances for aiding their movements and research. 
Each, also, was provided with a pointed piece of mech- 
anism, about fourteen pounds in weight, attached by a 
tackle to the end of the bowsprit, suited to be worked 
from the deck, and capable, by means of a series of sud- 
den falls, to break ice of any ordinary thickness, and 



COLLINSON AND M'CLURE. 259 

open a passage through a floe or light pack. The ships, 
though dull sailers, were the only ones fit for the ser- 
vice which could be got promptly ready ; and, in order 
to expedite their progress, steamers were put in requisi- 
tion to tow them in more than one part of their voyage, 
and particularly through the Magellan Strait, the Wel- 
lington Channel, and on to Valparaiso. 

They sailed from Plymouth Sound on the 20th of Jan- 
uary, 1850. The captains had minute orders for their 
guidance on the way to Behring's Strait, and with ref- 
erence to the previous expeditions of the Herald and the 
Plover ; and were also furnished with memoranda, sug- 
gestions, and conditional instructions, for their aid in the 
polar seas ; but, with the exception of two or three 
general commands, bearing comprehensively on the 
grand object of their mission, they were left almost 
entirely to their own discretion, after they should enter 
the ice. They were told to reap all the advantage they 
could from the experience of the Herald and the Plover ; 
to form a depot, or point of succor, for any party to fall 
back upon ; to retain the Plover, and get her replen- 
ished from the Herald, and send her a wintering and 
cruising on nearly her former ground till the autumn of 
1853 ; to keep the Enterprise and the Investigator 
steadily in each other's company, and onward as far as 
safety would permit to the east ; to cultivate the friend- 
ship of the Esquimaux, and induce them to carry mes- 
sages to the Hudson's Bay Company's settlements ; to 
throw occasionally overboard tin cylinders containing 
information, and to use every precaution against getting 
into any position which might possibly hold them fast 
till their provisions should become exhausted. 

Both ships made a comparatively speedy passage to 
Behring's Strait. On the 29th of July the Enterprise 
reached the western end of the Aleutian Chain ; on the 



260 RAE'S INSTRUCTIONS. 

11th of August she reached the island of St. Lawrence ; 
and on the 16th of August fell in with the ice. But the 
weather was then so unfavorable, and the ice so thick, 
that Captain Collinson abandoned a purpose which he 
had formed to attempt to penetrate that season to Cape 
Bathurst. After several encounters with the ice, he 
reached Grantley Harbor, and there found the Plover 
preparing for winter quarters, and was next day joined 
by the Herald. On consulting with Captains Kellett 
and Moore, he determined, instead of wintering in the 
north, to proceed to Hong Kong, there to replenish his 
provisions, and not to set out again for the north till at 
least the first of April, 1851. The Investigator was 
later in getting through the Pacific than the Enterprise ; 
and Commander Moore, of the Plover, writing at sea, in 
latitude 51° 26' north, and longitude 1^2° 35' west, on 
the 20th of July, gave a sketch of his intended opera- 
tions, and said that no apprehension need be enter- 
tained about his safety till the autumn of 1854, as he 
had on board full provisions of every kind for three years 
after the first of September, and intended to issue, in 
lieu of the usual rations, whatever food could be obtained 
by hunting parties from the ship. 

Dr. Rae, it will be remembered, was left by Sir John 
Richardson to attempt to overtake, in the summer of 
1849, an unaccomplished part of the objects of the over- 
land expedition of 1848. This had special reference to 
the examination of the coasts of Victoria Land and Wol- 
laston Land ; and now that Sir John Franklin's ships 
were believed to have certainly gone beyond Cape 
Walker, and to have probably bored their way south- 
westward to some position between that place and the 
mainland, this was deemed to be much more important 
than before. Early in 1850 instructions were despatched 
to Dr. Rae, by Governor Sir George Simpson, of the 



AUSTIN'S EXPEDITION. 261 

Hudson's Bay Company, requiring him, in the event of 
his explorations of 1849 having been unsuccessful, to 
organize another expedition for the summer of 1850. 
This was to penetrate further, to range more widely, 
and to examine the coasts of Banks's Island, the coasts 
around Cape Walker, and the north coast of Victoria 
Land. Two small parties, at the same time, were to 
proceed westward on the mainland in the direction of 
Point Barrow ; and one of these was to descend the 
Mackenzie, and explore the coast to the west of it, 
while the other was to pass on to the Colville River, 
and to descend that stream to the sea ; and both were 
to induce the natives, by rewards and otherwise, to 
prosecute the search, and spread intelligence in all direc- 
tions. Dr. Rae was particularly instructed to keep an 
ample supply of provisions, clothing, ammunition, fish- 
ing-tackle, and other necessaries, at Fort Good Hope, 
as that seemed an eminently probable retreat to which 
parties of the missing adventurers might try to force 
their way. But in most other matters, and especially 
in all the details of the expedition, he was left solely to 
his own discretion. 

The expedition equipped by the British government 
for renewed search by way of Baffin's Bay and Lancas- 
ter Sound comprised two strong teak-built ships, — the 
Resolute and the Assistance, — and two powerful screw- 
propelled steam-vessels — the Pioneer and the Intrepid. 
These ships had a tonnage, the former of five hundred, 
and the latter of four hundred and thirty tons, aud were 
alike strong, commodious, elegant, and admirably ap- 
purtenanced. The steam-vessels had strength and 
adaptation not only for towing the ships in open chan- 
nels, but for conflicting with the perils of the polar seas, 
and forcing a passage through small floes and thin 
packs of ice. Captain H. T. Austin was put in com- 



262 EOSS. — PENNY. 

mand of the Eesolute, Captain E. Ommaney of the 
Assistance, and Lieut. Sherard Osborne of the Pioneer. 
Multitudes of officers nobly vied as volunteers to obtain 
the subordinate appointments ; and some of the most 
experienced whale-fishers were obtained for the fore- 
castle. The instructions given were similar in scope 
and spirit to those of the Behring's Strait expedition, 
and differed chiefly in adaptation to the different route. 
The expedition sailed in the spring of 1850. 

An expedition under the command of the veteran Sir 
John Eoss was equipped by a public subscription, 
toward which the Hudson's Bay Company contributed 
five hundred pounds. This consisted of a schooner- 
rigged vessel of one hundred and twenty tons (which 
Sir John called the Felix, in honor of his late patriotic 
friend, Sir Felix Booth), and of a small tender, of twelve 
tons, called the Mary. They were provisioned for 
eighteen months, and they set sail in the latter part of 
April. Sir John was in excellent spirits, as full of fire 
and daring as in his younger years ; and he enlisted in 
his service an old expert Esquimaux interpreter. His 
plan was to proceed as quickly as he could to Barrow's 
Strait to commence operations at Cape Hotham, on the 
west side of the entrance of Wellington Channel ; to 
examine all the headlands thence to Banks's Land, and 
then, if still unsuccessful, to leave the Mary there as a 
vessel of retreat, and to push the search in the Felix 
alone during another year. 

An expedition also was equipped at the instance of 
the devoted Lady Franklin, wholly by her own zeal, and 
mainly at her own expense. This was put under the 
command of Mr. Penny, formerly master of the Advice 
whale-ship, and consisted of a fine ship of two hundred 
and twenty-five tons, called The Lady Franklin, and a new 
clipper-brig of one hundred and twenty tonS; named the 



FORSYTH'S EXPEDITION. 263 

Sophia. The larger vessel was fitted up at Aberdeen, 
and the smaller one at Dundee — both with great celer- 
ity, and in a style of the best possible adaptation to an 
Arctic voyage ; and they also sailed in the spring of 
1850. Their proposed plan of procedure was somewhat 
coincident with that of the government expedition ; yet 
entirely independent, except in the way of cooperation 
or mutual aid, and liable to be much controlled or mod- 
ified by circumstances. 

Another expedition, supplementary to the preceding, 
was equipped at the instance of Lady Franklin. She 
herself defrayed about two thirds of the cost of it, by 
means of selling out of the funds all the money which 
she could legally touch ; and her friends defraj^ed the 
rest. The only vessel was the Prince Albert, a 
schooner-rigged craft of ninety tons, but as fine a little 
structure as ever "walked the waters,'' and strength- 
ened and fitted in the most artistic way for buffeting 
the perils of the Arctic seas. She was commanded by 
Commander Charles C. Forsyth, of theEoyal Navy; and 
was served in a variety of capacities, most laboriously 
and dexterously, by Mr. W. P. Snow, — both volunteers, 
who wished no compensation but the honor of the en- 
terprise. The object was to examine the shores of 
Prince Regent's Inlet and the Gulf of Boothia, and to 
send out travelling parties to explore the west side of 
the land of Boothia down to Dease and Simpson's 
Strait. At the time when Sir John Franklin sailed, a 
belief was general that Boothia was an island, and that 
Prince Regent's Inlet communicated with the Polar Sea 
through Dease and Simpson's Strait ; so that, in the 
event of his being baffled in finding a north-west pas- 
sage by way of Cape Walker, or up Wellington Chan- 
nel, he would very probably enter Prince Regent's Inlet, 
with the view of passing round the south of Boothia. 



264 DE HAVEN.— NORTH STAR. 

Hence the present expedition. The Prince Albert sailed 
from Aberdeen on the 5th of June. 

An expedition also was equipped in America. This 
was got up mainly by the exertions and at the cost of 
Henry Grinnell, Esq., a merchant of New York, but 
was put in order and sent forth by the United States 
Navy department. It consisted of two vessels, the 
Advance and the Rescue, of respectively one hundred 
and twenty-five and ninety-five tons ; and was put under 
the command of Lieut. De Haven, who had served in 
the United States Exploring Expedition, under Commo- 
dore Wilkes, in the Antarctic seas. It sailed from New 
York on the 24th of May, and was accompanied for two 
days in his yacht by Mr. Grinnell. Its object was to 
push promptly forward, in any way it could, in the di- 
rection of Melville Island and Banks's Land ; to winter 
wherever it might happen to stick fast, in the pack, or 
out of the pack ; and to move on and make search as 
long as it might be able, in any direction which should 
offer most promise of success. 

The North Star transport, which left England in 1849 
to convey stores to the expedition under Sir James C. 
Ross, may in some sense be regarded likewise as one of 
the exploring ships of 1850. She became beset in Mel- 
ville Bay on the 29th of July, 1849, and gradually drifted 
till the 26th of September ; and being then abreast of 
Wolstenholme Sound, and able to bore a way through the 
loosened ice, she pressed up to the head of that sound, 
and there wintered in lat. 16° 33' N., being the most north- 
erly position in which any vessel, except Dr. Kane's, has 
been known to be laid up. She lost four of her crew 
during the dismal seclusion of the Arctic night, but not 
from causes attributable to the climate ; and she found a 
large proportion of the preserved meats she had brought 
from England to be of bad quality, and was obliged to 



PROGRESS OF THE EXPEDITION. 265 

put the surviving crew upon two-thirds allowance. 
She got out of Wolstenholme Sound on the 1st of August, 
1850, passed through "the middle ice '^ in the centre 
of Ross's Bay, reached Possession Bay on the evening 
of the 8th, left despatches there, and arrived at Leopold 
on the 13th. She found that harbor full of ice, and was 
not able to land stores at it, and with great difficult}^ 
communicated with the shore by boat, to leave a notice 
of her visit. She next went toward Port Bowen, but 
found that place entirely blocked with ice : and then 
stretched across out of the inlet, and spoke first the 
Lady Franklin, and afterwards the Felix, and got intel- 
ligence from them of the great searching operations of 
that season. She next proceeded to Navy Board Inlet, 
and there, on the mainland, behind WoUaston Island, 
she put ashore her surplus stores of fuel and provisions. 
She had suddenly to scud away before a gale ; and, run- 
ning out of the mid-channel of Lancaster Sound, on the 
28th of September she arrived in Scotland. 

The several expeditions of 1850 up Baffin's Bay en- 
countered enormous difficulties from " the middle ice " 
and the Melville Bay barrier. Though the ships sailed 
from widely different points at widely different periods, 
they nearly all got into view of one another, and most 
were for some time closely in company. All were at 
several times arrested or beset ; and the best and largest 
spent five weeks in effecting a northward distance of 
thirty miles. The perils which they braved were ot\\j 
a degree or two less terrible than those of the Terror in 
Hudson's Bay in 1836. The crews of the smaller ves- 
sels were repeatedly all prepared, with their bundles 
and loose stores, to leap on the ice from expected ship- 
wreck, and to betake themselves to sledging or foot- 
travelling for escape to the land. The environment, by 
massive towering icebergs, was sometimes so complete 
23 



266 THE PRINCE ALBERT. 

as to exclude every perceptible outlet, sometimes so 
close as almost to rub the ships, and sometimes so un- 
steady or whirling as to threaten overwhelming somer- 
sets. Some whaling-ships which got early to the north, 
though commanded by the most experienced masters, 
and manned by the most select crews, turned about and 
sailed back to the south, fully believing the penetration 
of Melville Bay that season to be either an impossibility 
or practicable only at fearful hazards. 

The expedition ships, however, were little, if at all, 
daunted, conscious of possessing higher powers, and 
resolutely determined to get on. The means which 
they used for forcing their way comprised all the known 
methods of boring, tracking, and cutting, and were 
sometimes effected with prodigious labor and indomita- 
ble perseverance ; and they comprised also, in the case 
of the British government expedition, the smashing of 
all thin floes, and sometimes the perilous assault of 
thick ones, by the impetus of the steamers. The 
smaller vessels of the private expeditions might have 
seemed incompetent for such rough work ; but, though 
ill able to attack, they were well able to run and manoeu- 
vre ; and, on the average of the voyage through the 
ice, they were found to be fully as safe, and more than 
fully as manageable, as the large ships. 

The little Prince Albert, in particular, did wonders ; 
and on one occasion, disdaining to lie ice-fast, she made 
a daring attack upon a neck of ice which lay between 
her and an open piece of water. With a tremendous 
blow, that for the moment made her rebound and trem- 
ble, she struck the ice in the exact point, and rent it 
into fragments. 

The steamers, for a long way, accelerated the prog- 
ress not only of the government ships, but also of the 
Felix and the Pi-ince Albert, by towing them through 



MOVEMENTS OF THE SHIPS. 267 

pervious masses of loose ice, and by forcing a passage 
through impediments. One of the scenes, described by- 
Snow, in this part of the voyage illustrates its arduous- 
ness and novelty : " We came to a heavy nip, and all 
the vessels had to be made fast to a floe until a pas- 
sage could be cleared. The Pioneer, immediately on 
casting off the Resolute's tow-rope, was directed to dash 
at the impediment, under full power. This she did 
boldly and fearlessly, rushing stem on, and fairly dig- 
ging her bows into it in a most remarkable manner. 
Backing instantly astern, and then again going ahead, 
she performed the same manoeuvre, fairly lifting herself 
up on end, like a prancing war-horse. By this time the 
nip was too heavy to be so broken, though both the 
steamers had previously cleared many similar impedi- 
ments in that manner. It was now, however, necessary 
to resort to other means ; and, accordingly, parties from 
every ship were sent on the ice to assist in blowing it 
up, and removing the fragments as they got loosened. 
The same plan as that, I believe, adopted in blasting 
rocks, was here pursued. Powder was sunk to a certain 
depth, a slow match applied, and at a given signal 
ignited. Due time was allowed, and then the enormous 
masses would be seen in convulsive movement, as 
though shaken by a volcanic eruption, until piece upon 
piece was sent in the air, and the larger bodies were 
completely rent into innumerable fragments. The 
steamers then darted forward, and with warps dragged 
out the immense blocks that had been thus dissevered. 
Several efforts had to be made by blasting and forcing 
the ice before a passage could be cleared. '' 

On the 14th of August the Lady Franklin and the 
Sophia were for a little while in company with the other 
ships, and then, amidst deafening cheers, stood away, 
under all sail, to the west. On the following night, 



268 MOVEMENTS OF THE SHIPS. 

when the little fleet were off Cape Dudley Digges, the - 
Intrepid, the Assistance, and the Felix, parted company 
to make a search in Wolstenholme Sound. On the 15th 
the Pioneer, the Resolute, and the Prince Albert, were 
quite into the " North Water,'' away from the ice ; and 
on the 16th Captain Austin announced his intention to 
call at Pond's Bay and Possession Bay. He expressed 
a wish that the Prince Albert would examine the south 
shore of Lancaster Sound from Cape Hay onward ; and 
stated that the Intrepid and the Assistance would ex- 
amine the north shore, and come to a rendezvous with 
the Resolute somewhere about the mouth of Wellington 
Channel. 

Early on the 21st of August the Prince Albert arrived 
off Port Leopold. A landing was effected with great 
difficulty in a gutta-percha boat, and could not have 
been effected at all in any ordinary boat. The house 
constructed by Sir James C. Ross was found much rent 
in several places on the top and at the sides, but other- 
wise in excellent order, and quite fit to be a temporary 
retreat to any forlorn or cast-away Arctic adventurers. 
The stores were abundant and in prime condition. The 
steam launch seemed a noble little vessel, in which a 
brave-hearted party might venture anywhere, and was 
so placed that she could very easily be run into the sea. 
But not a trace was found of the visit of any wanderer 
from the Erebus and the Terror. 

The Prince Albert now stood away down Prince Re- 
gent's Inlet ; and towards evening, when she was glid- 
ing past the ice of Batty Bay, her crew were startled 
for a moment into a thrill of hope. The men on deck 
thought they heard a gun fired on shore ; the officers 
ran to scrutinize the land through their glasses aloft ; 
the vessel was steered closer to the bay ; the howitzer 
was cleared away, and fired ; but not the slightest sign 



MOVExMENTS OF THE SHIPS. 269 

of life could be seen ; not the faintest answering sound 
was heard. The supposed shot had been merely the 
falling of a piece of rock, or the collision of some heavy 
masses of ice. 

^ext morning the vessel was off Fury Beach, and in 
a thick fog ; and when the fog cleared away, she proved 
to be in a bight of the ice, within a few yards of a con- 
tinuous, heavy, hummocky expanse, which contained 
not, as far as it could be seen from the crow's nest, one 
pool or crack, or the slightest promise of an opening. 
The officers examined this long and anxiously, and were 
forced to conclude that any attempt to penetrate it that 
season would be impracticable. They gloomily but 
irresistibly felt the specific object of their voyage, the 
examination of the shores of Boothia, to be defeated ; 
and saw at once that they must turn about and lose 
little time in returning to Britain. But they resolved 
first to look at some of the most accessible shores and 
headlands about the throat of Barrow's Strait, and a 
brief way up Wellington Channel. 

During twenty-four hours, Mr. Snow, with a small 
boat party, made a romantic land " search of the coast 
around Batty Bay, and on to Port Leopold ; and he found 
the latter place far more blocked up than on the 21st, 
and did not get away fi'om it without enormous labor 
and difficulty. When he again reached his vessel they 
had to stand well away to avoid collision with a heavy 
stream of ice which filled a large portion of the adjacent 
sounds. When they got a little way into Barrow's 
Strait, they saw coming right towards them a schooner, 
which they first supposed to be the Felix, but afterwards 
found to be the American brig Advance. On the 
morning of the 2dl:th, they were standing across to Cape 
Hurd, under a clear sky and with a moderate breeze, 
while a heavy pack was visible from the crow's nest, 
23* 



270 MEETING IN THE ARCTIC SEAS. 

extending all along the coast of North Somerset, from 
outside of Leopold Island on the east, to the vicinity of 
Cape Rennell, where it appeared to enlarge, and began 
to take a curved direction toward Cape Hotham. 
The Advance was still behind them ; the Lady Franklin 
and the Sophia were to windward, struggling along 
shore in the vicinity of Radstock Bay ; and, as the day 
wore on, three more ships were observed at the mouth of 
Wellington Channel. 

An hour before noon of the 25th, when the Prince 
Albert was off Cape Spencer, her officers saw that she 
must stop. An extensive pack was then a short dis- 
tance ahead, broken only by a few lanes of water, 
through which the ships in advance had evidently 
passed ; and the wind was blowing in a direction, 
happily, quite favorable for carrying these ships rapidly 
on to the regions of most desirable search, but fitted 
also to make a prompt closure of the pack against any 
return that season to the east. If the Prince Albert 
should now go forward more than a mile or two, she 
might be suddenly caught by the ice, and helplessly and 
uselessly shut up for the winter. At noon, therefore, 
she bore up when about midway between Cape Spencer 
and Point Innes ; and then Mr. Snow went to the mast- 
head to take a last view of the position and seeming 
prospects of the several exploring vessels. 

Cape Hotham was seen to the west enveloped in a 
thick haze. The Assistance appeared some distance to 
the north-east of it, endeavoring to get to it, seemingly 
either in a hole of water or along a lane. The Lady 
Franklin was not far from the Assistance, but, proba- 
bly, about raid-channel, either working toward Cape 
Hotham, or trying to get right away to the west. The 
Sophia, also under all sail, was some distance astern 
of the Lady Franklin, and more to the east. The Res- 



TRACES OF FRAI^KLIN. 271 

cue was still further to the east, considerably in-shore, 
and apparently beset. All these vessels were among 
heavy ice. The Advance could not be seen, but was 
supposed to be behind one of the points of land ; and 
she was afterwards spoken in the vicinity of Cape Riley, 
close in-shore, fast to an iceberg. The Intrepid, too, 
was not then visible, but had been seen in the morning. 
All Wellington Channel, as far as the eye could reach, 
was filled with one solid pack, broken only here and 
there by a small lane. Some high land, appearing dim 
and filmy from haze and distance, was seen toward 
Cape Bowden, trending apparently to the north-west. 
One heavy pack extended athwart all the south-west, 
and seemed to be impenetrable. The only clear water 
visible lay immediately around the Prince Albert, and 
backward along the way by which she had come. 

On the same day, soon after the Prince Albert had 
turned her bow homeward, a flag-staff, like a signal- 
post, was observed on Cape Riley. The oflScers, sup- 
posing this to have been set up by a party from some 
one of the exploration ships, sent a boat ashore to 
ascertain what it meant. A cylinder was found at the 
flag-staff, containing a notice that the officers of the 
Assistance and the Intrepid had landed on Cape Riley 
on the 23d ; that they had collected there distinct 
traces of an encampment by some party belonging to 
the royal navy of Britain ; that they had found traces 
of the same party on Beechey Island, and that they 
purposed to proceed thence to Cape Hotham and Cape 
Walker, in search of further traces. 

The little boat-party from the Prince Albert were too 
zealous to be satisfied with this mere notice. They 
looked eagerly around, and soon observed five spots 
on which tents seemed to have been fixed, and also 
obtained a piece of navy rope, a piece of canvas, a chip 



272 TRACES OF FRANKLIN. 

of timber, and a number of meat-bones. These, all 
poor and pitiful though they might seem of themselves, 
seemed to throw so perceptible a light on at least the 
commencement of the mystery of the Franklin expedi- 
tion, that they were esteemed a precious prize. 

The Prince Albert arrived at Aberdeen on the 1st 
of October ; and the relics from Cape Riley were 
speedily sent to the Admiralty, and subjected there to a 
rigorous scrutiny. The piece of rope was found to be 
of navy-yard manufacture, not later than 1841 ; the 
piece of canvas to have a corresponding character ; 
the chip of timber to have a recent cut, with seemingly 
an European axe ; the meat-bones to bear exactly the 
marks of a ship's provisions used about five years 
back ; the reported tent-marks to be nearly such as 
might be expected from a party making a long stay for 
the purpose of scientific observation ; and the entire 
circumstances of the traces on Cape Riley unaccount- 
able by any known or supposable event, except a pro- 
longed visit, in 1845 or 1846, by a party from the Erebus 
and the Terror, 

The first traces of the missing ships were discovered 
by Captain Ommaney, in the Assistance, at Cape Riley, 
on the 23d August, 1850. The cape is a point at the 
eastern entrance of Wellington Channel ; about three 
miles west of it rises the bold abrupt coast of Beechey 
Island ; and between the shores of this isle and the 
mainland lies a bay to which extraordinary interest is 
now attached. On its coast were observed numerous 
sledge-tracks ; and at Cape Spencer, about ten miles 
from Cape Riley, up Wellington Channel, the party 
discovered the ground-place of a tent, the floor neatly 
paved with small smooth stones. 

Around the tent a number of birds' bones, as well as 
remnants of meat-canisters, seemed to indicate that it 



TRACES OF FRANKLIN. 273 

had been inhabited for some time as a shooting station 
and a look-out place, for which latter purpose it was 
admirably chosen, commanding a good view of Barrow's 
Strait and Wellington Channel. 

Some sledge-tracks led northward for about twenty- 
miles, but the trail ceased south of Cape Bowden, and 
an empty bottle and a piece of newspaper were the last 
things found. The results of examining Beechey Island 
must be given in more detail, Lieut. Osborne says : 
" A long point of land slopes gradually from the south- 
ern bluffs of this now deeply interesting island, until it 
almost connects itself with the land of North Devon, 
forming on either side of it two good and commodious 
bays. On this slope a multitude of preserved-meat-tins 
were strewed about ; and near them, and on the ridge 
of the slope, a carefully-constructed cairn was dis- 
covered ; it consisted of layers of fitted tins, filled with 
gravel, and placed to form a firm and solid foundation. 
Beyond this, and along the northern shore of Beechey 
Island, the following traces were then quickly dis- 
covered : the embankment of a house, with carpenters' 
and armorers' working-places, washing-tubs, coal-bags, 
pieces of old clothing, rope, — and, lastly, the graves of 
three of the crew of the Erebus and Terror, bearing 
date of the winter of 1845-6. We, therefore, noiv'had 
ascertained the first winter quarters of Sir John Franklin. 

" On the eastern slope of the ridge of Beechey Island a 
remnant of a garden (for remnant it now only was, having 
been dug up in the search) told an interesting tale ; its 
neatly-shaped, pval outline — the border carefully formed 
of moss lichen, poppies, and anemones, transplanted 
from some more genial part of this dreary region — con- 
trived still to show symptoms of vitality ; but the seeds 
which, doubtless, they had sowed in the garden, had 
decayed away. Nearer to the beach, a heap of cinders 



274 TRACES OF FRANKLIN. 

and scraps of iron showed the armorers' working-place; 
and, along an old water-course, now chained up by 
frost, several tubs, constructed of the ends of salt-meat 
casks, left no doubt as to the washing-places of the men 
of Franklin's squadron. Happening to cross a level 
piece of ground, which as yet no one had lighted upon, 
I was pleased to see a pair of cashmere gloves laid out 
to dry, with two small stones on the palms to prevent 
their blowing away ; 'they had been there since 1846. I 
took them up carefully, as melancholy mementoes of 
my missing friends. In another spot a flannel was 
discovered ; and this, together with some things lying 
about, would, in my ignorance of wintering in the Arctic 
regions, have led me to suppose that there was consid- 
erable haste displayed in the departure of the Erebus 
and Terror from this spot, had not Captain Austin 
assured me that there was nothing to ground such a 
belief upon, and that, from experience, he could vouch 
for these being nothing more than the ordinary traces 
of a winter station ; and this opinion was fully borne 
out by those officers who had, in the previous year, 
wintered in Port Leopold, one of them asserting that 
people left winter quarters too well pleased to escape, 
to care much for a handful of shavings, an old coal-bag, 
or a washing-tub." 

The most interesting traces of winter residence were 
the graves of Franklin's three seamen. Each grave 
was marked by an oaken head and foot board, and the 
inscriptions were as follow : 

" Sacred to the memory of J. Torrin^ton, who de- 
parted this life January 1st, 1846, on board of H. M. S. 
Terror, aged 20 years." 

''Sacred to the memory of J. Hartnell, A.B., of 
H. M. S. Erebus, died January 4th, 1846, aged 23 years. 



TRACES OF FRANKLIN. 275 

Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways. — 
Haggai 1 : Y/' 

"Sacred to the memory of Wm. Braine, R.M., of 
H. M. S. Erebus, died April 3d, 1846, aged 82 years. 
Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. — Josh. 24 : 15." 

Lieut. De Haven, of the Advance, landed on Cape 
Riley on the morning of the 25th August, where he 
examined the traces of Sir John Franklin, before de- 
scribed, and erected a second signal-post. On the same 
day the Prince Albert visited the place, and by her, as 
we have seen, the first intelligence of the discovery was 
carried to England. Afterwards Captain Penny and 
his officers examined Beechey Island and the whole 
neighborhood very carefully and minutely. But the 
thorough search made by all these parties failed to 
discover any memorandum or record to indicate Frank- 
lin's past efforts or future intentions. 

All that can be learned from the traces discovered is,, 
that Franklin's ships wintered, in 1845-6, on the south 
side of Beechey Island, and 'that three of his men died 
at that point. The mortality does not exceed that of 
previous expeditions ; and we may therefore conclude 
that the expedition was in highly effective order when 
it left that anchorage, with only a moderate inroad into 
its stock of preserved meats, the seven hundred empty 
tins found on the island forming but a small proportion 
of the twenty-four thousand canisters with which the 
ships were supplied. 

How long Franklin's ships remained at Beechey Island, 
when and under what circumstances they left, and what 
course they pursued, are mere matters of conjecture, as 
to which various opinions have been formed. Some ex- 
perienced officers believe that the expedition did not 
leave its winter anchorage till the end of August or 
beginning of September, 1846. It is also inferred, from 



276 SLEDGING PARTIES. 

some appearances, that it left suddenly ; that probably a 
great and unexpected disruption of the ice had sum- 
moned the crews to resume progress in the ships ; but 
this is contested by other officers of equal experience, 
who contend that there could have been no hurry in 
removing from Beechey Island, as everything bore the 
stamp of order and regularity, utterly forbidding the 
idea that Franklin had been forced away by the ice. 

On the 8th September, 1850, most of the searching 
vessels got once more free from the ice, and unfurled 
their sails in open water, along the south side of Corn- 
wallis Island. They bore boldly away, in the hope of 
penetrating well to the west, but were soon arrested by 
a vast floe, which extended from the south-west end of 
Griffith Island, as far as the eye could reach. They 
kept close to this, and strove with it, from the 10th till 
the 13th, and then began again to get forward ; yet pro- 
ceeded only a short distance, amid great embarrassment 
and severe exertion, when they were compelled to stick 
fast for the winter. The government ships were locked 
up in the ice between Cornwallis Island and Griffith 
Island ; and all the others were sufficiently near to 
admit of easy communication among the whole squad- 
ron. 

Arrangements were early made for performing explor- 
atory journeys with sledges in spring. Captain Aus- 
tin superintended those for the lands and islands along 
what may be called Parry's Strait, — the band of sea 
westward from Barrow's Strait to Melville Island, and 
the north end of Banks's Land ; and Captain Penny un- 
dertook to conduct the search of Wellington Channel. 
Sledges were sent out, before the severest period of the 
winter, to place provisions in depot for the use of the 
explorers in spring ; and exercises of walking and sledge- 
dragging were afterwards, in all favorable weather, prac- 



SLEDGING PARTIES. 277 

tised near the ships, to keep the men vigorous, and to 
train them for their journey ings. 

On the 12th of April the parties for the westward ex- 
ploration, amounting to one hundred and four men, with 
fourteen sledges, were all ready, and proceeded, under 
the command of Captain Ommaney, to an encampment 
at the north-west end of Griffith Island. There they 
underwent a close inspection by Captain Austin, and 
spent three days in repose, and in waiting for the abate- 
ment of a tempestuous wind. On the evening of the 
15th they united in a special prayer to the Divine Be- 
ing for protection and guidance, and then, with enthu- 
siastic determination, started on their arduous enter^ 
prise. 

Six of the parties were "extended" ones, — to go 
to the utmost possible distance, — three along the south 
shore, and three along the north shore. The first sledge 
on the south shore, the Reliance, under Captain Omma- 
ney, travelled four hundred and eighty miles, discov- 
ered two hundred and five miles of previously un- 
known coast, and was absent sixty days. The second, 
the True Blue, under Lieut. Osborne, travelled five 
hundred and six miles, discovered seventy miles of 
coast, and was absent fifty-eight days. And the third, 
the Enterprise, under Lieut. Browne, travelled three 
hundred and seventy-five miles, discovered one hundred 
and fifty miles of coast, and was absent forty-four days. 
In this travelling sails were occasionally hoisted on the 
sledges, and large kites were also attached. When the 
wind was high, these aids propelled the sledge very 
rapidly, and the whole of the party then rode ; but when 
the wind fell, the sledges, with their provisions and 
stores, had to be dragged by main force over the ice 
by the men harnessed to them. The most western point 
reached was the extreme one of the True Blue, and is 
24 



278 SLEDGING PARTIES 

situated in west longitude 103° 25', almost half way 
between Leopold Island and Point Tumagain on the 
American continent. 

The first sledge on the north shore, the Lady Frank- 
lin, under the command of Lieut. Aldrich, travelled five 
hundred and fifty miles, discovered seventy miles of 
coast, and was absent sixty-two days. The second, the 
Perseverance, under the command of Lieut. M'Clintock, 
travelled seven hundred and sixty miles, discovered 
forty miles of coast, and was absent eighty days. And 
the third, the Eesolute, under the command of Surgeon 
Bradford, travelled six hundred and sixty-nine miles, 
discovered one hundred and thirty-five miles of coast, 
and was absent eighty days. Lieut. M'Clintock's party 
achieved the furthest westing of the three ; and the fur- 
thest, indeed, which has ever been attained in the polar 
seas, — a point in latitude Y4° 38' and west longitude 
114° 20'. 

He left the ships on the 15th of April, and, taking a 
course due west, reached Point Griffith, on the eastern 
shore of Melville Island, on the 11th of May. On the 
21st he sighted Winter Harbor ; but, there being neither 
ships, tents, nor any sign of human habitation, to be 
seen, he deferred any close scrutiny of it until his return. 
By the 2Tth of May he had reached Cape Dundas, at the 
western extremity of Melville Island ; and on the follow- 
ing day, ascending a high cliff, made out the coast of 
Banks's Land. 

To the north of Banks's Land, at a distance from it 
of about seventy miles, he discovered a range of land 
apparently running nearly due west. " This does not 
present steep clifts, but a bold and deeply indented 
coast ; the land rising to the interior, and intersected 
by valleys rather than ravines." The sea he imagined 
to continue to the westward. Following the coast of 



SLEDCflNG PAKTIES. 279 

Melville Island to the north-east, he entered Liddon 
Gulf, and here saw fragments of coal of good quality. 
Leaving the shore, he crossed the gulf to gain Bushman 
Cove, where Parry, in his journey across the island, in 
1820, had left the " strong but light cart," in which he 
had carried his tent and stores. On the 1st of June 
M'Clintock reached the west point of the cove, and, 
leaving two men to prepare supper, he commenced a 
search, with four others, for Parry's encampment of the 
11th of June, 1^20: 

"On reaching the ravine leading into the cove," he 
says, ''we spread across, and walked up, and easily 
found the encampment, although the pole had fallen 
down. The very accurate report published of his jour- 
ney saved us much labor in finding the tin cylinder and 
ammunition. The crevices between the stones piled over 
them were filled with ice and snow ; the powder com- 
pletely destroyed, and cylinder eaten through with rust, 
and filled with ice. From the extreme difficulty of 
descending into such a ravine with any vehicle, I sup- 
posed that the most direct route, where all seemed 
equally bad, was selected ; therefore sent the men di- 
rectly up the northern bank, in search of the wheels 
which were left where the cart broke down. They 
fortunately found them at once ; erected a cairn about 
the remains of the wall built to shelter the tent ; placed 
a record on it, in one tin case within another. We then 
collected a few relics of our predecessors, and returned 
with the remains of the cart to our encampment. An 
excellent fire had been made with willow stems ; and 
upon this a kettle, containing Parry's cylinder, was 
placed. As soon as the ice was thawed out of it, the 
record it contained was carefully taken out. I could 
only just distinguish the date. Had it been in a better 



280 SLEDGING PARTIES. 

state of preservation, I would have restored it to its 
lonely position.'' 

As the weather was misty, M'Clintock did not explore 
the head of the gulf, but struck directly across the land 
for Winter Harbor. It was evident that no one had 
visited the place since Parry's departure, in 1820. 

On the shore, above Winter Harbor, is a large sand- 
stone bowlder, near the site of Parry's observatory, on 
the flat face of which Mr. Fisher, his surgeon, had cut 
this inscription : 

His Britannic Majesty's 
Ships HECLA and GEIPER, 

Commanded by 

W. E. Parry and Mr. Liddon, 

Wintered in the adjacent 

Harbor 1819-20. 

A. Fisher, Sculpt. 

This inscription, M'Clintock says, appeared quite 
fresh. A hare, discovered at the foot of this rock, 
was so tame that she entered the tent, and would almost 
allow the men to touch her. "1 have never seen," 
he says, " any animal, in its natural state, so perfectly 
fearless of man ; and there cannot be a more convincing 
proof that our missing countrymen have not been here. 
A ptarmigan alighted on the rock, and was shot, without 
in the least disturbing puss as she sat beneath it." 

M'Clintock carved the figures 1851 on the rock, and 
left it and the hare. 

On the 6th June he left Winter Harbor, and reached 
the ships on the 4th of July. The latter part of his 
journey was fatiguing, from the extensive pools of 
water in the ice ; but all his men arrived in excellent 
health and spirits. He was out eighty days, and had 
travelled seven hundred and seventy miles. Several 
reindeer, musk-oxen, and bears, were shot, besides 
numerous birds ; and the food thus obtained was of 



SLEDGING PARTIES. 281 

very material importance to the people. They travelled 
when the cold was so intense that bottles of water, car- 
ried by the men in their breasts, froze after an hour or 
so ; salt pork broke like suet, and rum thickened. This 
journey made it certain that Franklin had not passed 
west of the Parry Islands. 

The other two parties moved in higher latitudes, and 
were stopped a little west of Sabine Island, yet they 
traversed tracts and encountered incidents of high 
interest. 

The parties of less limited range than the '' extended '' 
ones deposited provisions, set up marks, made obser- 
vations, ascertained positions, and effected minor ex- 
plorations ; and were absent during periods of from 
twelve to thirty-four days. They may seem to have had 
easier work than the others ; yet they suffered more 
severely, for no fewer than twenty-eight of their men 
were frost-bitten, and one died from exhaustion and 
cold. The extended parties got back in good health, 
and needed only a little rest and comfort to repair the 
effects of their privation and fatigue. But not one of 
all the parties, near or remote, obtained the slightest 
trace of the missing adventurers ; and Captain Austin, 
after receiving and considering well the reports of all, 
" arrived at the conclusion that the expedition under 
Sir John Franklin did not prosecute the object of its 
mission to the southward and westward of Wellington 
Strait.'' 

The sledge-parties for the exploration of Wellington 
Channel amounted to six, and comprised forty-one men, 
and were officered by Captain Stewart, Messrs. Marshall, 
Reid, and J. Stuart, and Surgeons Sutherland and 
Goodsir. They started on the 17th of April, under the 
general superintendence of Captain Penny ; but they 
soon encountered severe weather, and were buffeted 
24* 



282 SLEDGING PARTIES. 

and baffled by it for a series of days, and compelled to 
return ; and on the 6th of May, after special prayer to 
God for support, they again started. Some coursed so 
far and so curvingly as to make a near approach to the 
most northerly of Captain Austin's parties ; and all 
figured largely and respectably in the squadron's aggre- 
gate of exploits. But their chief feat — the feat, at least, 
of those on the channel and west of it — was a discovery 
which put a stop to their progress toward the north, 
and gave an entirely new complexion to the search in 
which they were engaged, — the discovery of a wide 
westward strait of open water, lying along the further 
side of the lands which flank Barrow's Strait and Parry's 
Strait. 

Captain Penny personally shared in this discovery, 
and made great exertions to follow it up. The explor- 
ers, proceeding up Wellington Channel, arrived in 
latitude 16° 22' at Cape Duhorn, and thence ten miles 
north-westward to Point Decision. Penny, on the 15th 
of May, went from this point, over the ice, north-west 
by north, to an island which he called Bailie Hamil- 
ton Island. The ice was in a very decayed state ; and 
on the ITth, after travelling round the island, first in a 
north-easterly and next in a north-north-westerly direc- 
tion, he arrived at the open strait, saw in it twenty-five 
miles of clear water, and discovered a headland fifteen 
miles distant, west by north, over-canopied by a dark 
sky, which indicated an expanse of open water on the 
further side. This point was found to be in latitude 16° 2' 
and west longitude 95° 55' ; and the strait received the 
name of Victoria Channel. 

Penny hastened back to the ships for a boat, and used 
every exertion to have one promptly mounted on sledges 
and sent forward ; but he did not get it up to the strait 
without vast effort, and some tantalizing delays. But 



EETUM HOME. 283 

at length he launched it, loaded it, and pushed off. He 
had proceeded only ten miles, when he was obliged to 
seek refuge in a bay from a westerly gale and a strong 
head sea ; and he afterwards contended much and 
almost constantly with unfavorable winds and rapid 
tides ; yet he succeeded in examining three hundred 
and ten miles of coast, and did not desist till his stock 
of provisions began to fail. He put about on the 20th 
of July, and made his way to the ships amid constant 
rain and tempest, insomuch that, in the route over the 
ice, he had to ford rapid streams. 

Penny thus ranks high as a discoverer ; but as to the 
immediate object of his adventures, he had all his labor 
for nothing. He found not a trace of the Erebus and 
the Terror ; yet he confirmed his convictions that they 
had gone up Wellington Channel and along Victoria 
Channel. 

The American explorers were prevented from taking 
any part in the searching operations of the spring, by 
their experiencing the same kind of involuntary ejection 
from Lancaster Sound which befell Sir James Ross's ex- 
pedition in the Enterprise and the Investigator. Their 
vessels were frozen in opposite Wellington Channel, and 
were carried thence to the east, slowly and rigidly, and 
in stern defiance of all possible resistance by man, to a 
point south of Cape Walsingham. They drifted a 
linear distance of at least one thousand and fifty miles, 
and suffered much from the commotion of the ice, and 
were not set free till the 10th of June. 

Captain Austin seems to have concurred wjth Sir John 
Ross in the opinion that the Erebus and the Terror had 
gone back to Baffin's Bay. After the failure of searches 
for further traces of them west and north of the mouth 
of Wellington Channel, Austin supposed that they 
probably tried to reach the Polar Sea through Jones's 



284 RETURN HOME. 

Sound, which opens off the north side of the upper part 
of Baffin's Bay. He accordingly went round to that 
place with his two steamers, and explored it. He found 
it about sixty miles wide at the entrance, — a width 
which greatly exceeds that given it in the Admiralty 
charts ; and he sailed about forty-five miles up its 
southern shore, and was there arrested by a fixed bar- 
rier of ice ; and he then sailed along the face of that 
barrier, twenty-five miles, to the northern shore, and 
traced that shore down to the entrance. But he saw 
nothing to indicate that the Erebus and the Terror had 
been there ; and he judged, from well-defined appear- 
ances to the west, that the sound is closed by land not 
very far above the point which he reached, and has no 
communication with the Polar Sea. He then thought 
all further attempts at exploration either useless or 
inconsistent with his instructions, and set sail for Eng- 
land, where he arrived in the autumn of 1851. 




ESQUIMAUX KAYAK. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

further particulars op the searching expeditions. sir john ross's 

voyage. results. carrier-pigeons. penny's expedition. dr. 

Sutherland's scientific observations. — glaciers and icebergs. — 

winter climate. anecdotes. esquimaux dogs. usb of snow. 

first grinnell expedition. — adventures in the ice. — winter 

in the arctic ocean. dangerous drifting. breaking up of the 

ice. return. 

Having sketched generally in the last chapter the prog- 
ress of the vessels which cooperated, in 1850, in pros- 
ecuting the search for Sir John Franklin from the direc- 
tion of Baffin^s Bay, we shall now take up each expedi- 
tion separately, and present such further details as may 
tend to add interest and completeness to our history of 
their proceedings. 

Of the four vessels comprising the squadron of Com- 
modore Austin, and also of the Prince Albert, we have 
already related all that is important, concluding with 
their safe return to England. 

Sir John Ross, in the Felix discovery yacht, with her 
tender, the Mary, after obtaining an Esquimaux inter- 
preter at Holsteinborg, and calling at Whale Fish 
Islands, proceeded northward through Waygat's Straits, 
and overtook Commodore Austin's squadron on the 11th 
of August, 1850. Arrangements were made with that 
officer for a combined examination of every part of the 
eastern side of a north-west passage, in which it was 
probable that the missing ships could be found. On the 



286 SIR JOHN ROSS'S VOYAGE. 

13th of August, in company with Lieut. Cator in the 
Intrepid, Ross held communication with a party of Es- 
quimaux near Cape York, who told him a story, the 
purport of which, according to his interpreter, was that 
in the winter of 1846 two ships were crushed in the ice 
in the direction of Cape Dudley Digges, and afterwards 
burned by a fierce tribe of natives ; and that their crews, 
some of whom were described as wearing epaulets, 
were subsequently killed by the natives. Although 
Mr. Petersen, the interpreter attached to the Lady 
Franklin, which lay a few miles off, wholly discredited 
this story, and gave a translation of the Esquimaux com- 
munication wholly at variance with the other, it was 
thought of sufficient consequence by Capt. Austin to 
merit an investigation. Meantime the further informa- 
tion was received that a ship had passed the last winter 
safely housed in Wolstenholme Sound, A party, taking 
both interpreters, was accordingly sent to examine 
Wolstenholme Sound ; and by them it was ascertained 
that the ship which wintered there was no other than 
the North Star, and that in all probability that circum- 
stance was the whole foundation of the Esquimaux 
story, whatever it might have been. Nevertheless, Sir 
John Ross, who was long ago noted for "jumping at 
conclusions," still seems to have had a lingering belief 
that in this wild tale he had learned the fate of the 
Erebus and Terror. It was perhaps this belief which 
led him soon after to announce his intention of return- 
ing to England ; and even after his arrival there he is 
said to have adhered to his theory that Franklin and his 
companions perished in Baffin's Bay. He pressed on to 
Cape Riley, however, before leaving the field of discov- 
ery, and bore his part in the search there made for 
traces of the missing navigators. 

There is little more to relate concerning his expedi- 



CARRIER-PIGEONS. 287 

tion. The only results of which we have any account 
are stated by himself to be that he was able to make 
''many important corrections and valuable additions to 
the charts of the much-frequented eastern side of Baf- 
fin's Bay, which/' he adds, " has been more closely ob- 
served and navigated by this than by any former expe- 
dition ; and, much to my satisfaction, confirming the 
latitude and longitude of every headland I had the 
opportunity of laying down in the year 1818." 

One interesting incident, however, is worthy of men- 
tion before we take leave of Sir John Ross. When he 
left England on this expedition, he took with him four 
carrier-pigeons belonging to a lady in Ayrshire, intend- 
ing to liberate two of them when the state of the ice 
rendered it necessary to lay his vessel up for the winter, 
and the other two when he discovered Sir John Frank- 
lin. A pigeon made its appearance at the dove-cot in 
Ayrshire, on the 13th of October, which the lady recog- 
nized by marks and circumstances that left no doubt on 
her mind of its being one of the younger pair presented 
by her to Sir John. It carried no billet, but there were 
indications, in the loss of feathers on the breast, of one 
having been torn from under the wing. Though it is 
known that the speed of pigeons is equal to one hun- 
dred miles an hour, the distance from Melville Island to 
Ayrshire, being, in a direct line, about twenty-four hun- 
dred miles, is so great, that evidence of the bird having 
been sent ofi* as early as the 10th of October was required 
before it could be believed that no mistake was made in 
the identification of the individual that came to the dove- 
cot. It was afterwards ascertained that Sir John Ross 
despatched the youngest pair on the 6th or Tth of Octo- 
ber, 1850, in a basket suspended to a balloon, during a 
W. N. W. gale. By the contrivance of a slow-match, the 
birds were to be liberated at the end of twenty-four 



288 SUTHERLAND'S SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. 

hours. The reader can form his own opinion as to the 
identity of the pigeon in question. 

We have already alluded to Captain Penny's expedi- 
tion, fitted out by Lady Franklin. His little vessels, 
the Lady Franklin and the Sophia, entered Davis's Strait 
on the 26th of April, 1850 ; but they did not get into 
the open water at the head of Baffin's Bay until the 18th 
of August. Nearly four months they were squeezed 
about among the drifting ice in this tedious and terrible 
passage, sometimes closely wedged on the shore-ice, 
and sometimes tracking by manual labor through the 
breaking pack. Some facts of a scientific interest are 
mentioned by Dr. Sutherland, who accompanied Penny. 

The first great difficulty the Arctic voyager has to 
contend with is the capricious state of the navigation 
in the grand approach to the Polar Sea. The melting 
of the ice and snow in the north of Baffin's Bay pro- 
duces a continuous stream of water, which flows stead- 
ily to the south. As soon as this current leaves the 
projecting points at the head of the bay, a thin film of 
ice is formed on it. This ice gets thicker and thicker 
as it moves southwards, by congealing new layers of 
sea-water on its under surface, and by storing up snow 
and sleet above, until it becomes what the whaler calls 
the middle-ice of the bay. In winter it extends from 
shore to shore.; but in summer it is separated from the 
Greenland coast by an open lane of water, in conse- 
quence of its connection with the fringe of land, ice be- 
ing dissolved where northerly winds prevail. An open 
space of water is always left by this southward drift of 
the ice-pack at the northern extremity of Baffin's Bay ; 
the extent of the space varies, however, with the 
season. In winter, it is diminished by the shooting out 
of the land-ice towards the drift, and the quickened form- 
ation of the young ice ; in summer, it is increased by the 



GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS. 289 

breaking up of the land-ice, and the arrest of the forma- 
tion of young ice. The great object of the mariner 
bound to Lancaster Sound is to push his way through 
the open lane of water along the. Greenland coast, 
-and to get round the northern extremity of the drift- 
ice. But he finds this to be no easy task: every 
southerly gale crushes the ice in upon the shores of the 
bay, and squeezes any unfortunate vessel chancing to 
be placed therein before it, often wedging it up immov- 
ably, or even breaking it to pieces under the violence 
of the nip. The only resource of the captive voyager, 
under such circumstances, is to seek a refuge beneath 
the lee of some huge ice-mountain that has grounded a 
mile or two off the land, or to take timely warning, and 
cut docks in the solid land-floe, into which he may re- 
tire when the pressure comes. The driving iceberg is, 
however, a fearful neighbor, if the water prove not 
shallow enough to arrest its movement ; for it will then 
sometimes plough its onward way through miles and 
miles of field and pack ice, heaving up the frozen masses 
before its tremendous impulse, and sweeping every- 
thing away that opposes its course. 

According to Dr. Sutherland, there is more chance of 
an easy passage to the open water at the head of Baf- 
fin's Bay early in the season, before the shore-ice is 
much broken, and when the middle-ice moves away 
from it bodily, vsdthout any intervening detritus, than 
later in the season, when there is a greater quantity of 
loosened ice to be packed into the channel. 

The entire length of the Baffin's Bay coast of Green- 
land is indented with bays and fiords, towards which gla- 
ciers descend from the higher interior land. At Cape 
Farewell the termination of the glacier-ice is still miles 
away from the sea ; between Cape Farewell and Cape 
York, the land, devoid of the incursions of glacier-ice, 
25 



290 GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS. 

gets narrower and narrower. North of Cape York the 
ice-stream projects into the sea itself, even beyond the 
line of prominent headlands. It is from this region that 
the vast icebergs, drifted out into the open Atlantic by 
the southward current, are derived ; for it is a singular 
fact that there is no glacier-ice along the shores west- 
ward of Lancaster Sound. All the snow which there 
falls, even so far north as ^1° latitude, escapes to the 
sea in streams of water, carrying with them vast quan- 
tities of mud and shingle. The land on both sides of Bar- 
row's Strait is composed of limestone ; but Greenland, 
and the coasts which form Davis's Strait, BaflBn's Bay, 
and Lancaster Sound, where the fallen snow is retained 
for ages before it slips, as the solid glacier, back to the 
ocean, are all made of hard crystalline rock. Dr. Suth- 
erland thinks that this difference of mineral constitution 
may in some way affect the temperature, and so deter- 
mine the abundance of glaciers in the one position, and 
their absence in the other. 

We may here remark that the ice which obstructs the 
navigation of the Arctic seas is of two kinds : the one 
produced by the congelation of fresh, and the other by 
that of salt water. In those inhospitable tracts, the 
snow, which annually falls on the islands or continents, 
being again dissolved by the progress of the summer's 
heat, pours forth numerous rills and limpid streams, 
which collect along the indented shores, and in the deep 
bays enclosed by precipitous rocks. There this clear 
and gelid water soon freezes, and every successive year 
supplies an additional investing crust, till, after the 
lapse, perhaps, of several centuries, the icy mass rises at 
last to the size and aspect of a mountain, commensurate 
with the elevation of the adjoining cliffs. The melting 
of the snow, which is afterwards deposited on such 
enormous blocks, likewise contributes to their growth ; 



GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS. 291 

and, by filling up the accidental holes or crevices, it 
renders the whole structure compact and uniform. 
Meanwhile the principle of destruction has already be- 
gun its operations. The ceaseless agitation of the sea 
gradually wears and undermines the base of the icy 
mountain, till at length, by the action of its own accu- 
mulated weight, when it has perhaps attained an alti- 
tude of a thousand or even two thousand feet, it is torn 
from its frozen chains, and precipitated, with a tremen- 
dous plunge, into the abyss below. This mighty launch 
now floats like a lofty island on the ocean ; till, driven 
southwards by winds and currents, it insensibly wastes 
and dissolves away in the vdde Atlantic. Icebergs have 
been known to drift from Baffin's Bay to the Azores. 

Such is believed to be the real origin of the icy 
mountains or icebergs, entirely similar in their formation 
to the glaciers which occur on the flanks of the Alps and 
the Pyrenees. They consist of a clear, compact, and 
solid ice, having the fine green tint, verging to blue, which 
ice or water, when very pure and of a sufficient depth, 
generally assumes. From the cavities of these icebergs 
the crews of the northern whalers are accustomed, by 
means of a hose or flexible tube of canvas, to fill their 
casks easily with the finest and softest water. 

The projecting tongues of the glaciers are not dis- 
solved where they extend into the sea, but broken off 
by a species of "flotation.'' Heavy spring-tides are 
driven into the head of the bay, and up the fiords, by 
strong southerly winds ; and the buoyant ice is heaved 
up by the rising water, and broken off from its parent 
stream. The floating power of large masses of ice must 
be enormous. Dr. Sutherland observed upon a small 
island, at an elevation of forty feet, a block of granite 
that measured sixteen feet in length, and must have 
contained at least one hundred and eighty-six tons of 



292 GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS. 

solid rock ! He calculated that a cube of ice, forty feet 
across the side, could easily have carried off this burden 
in water seven fathoms deep. Icebergs thus broken off 
from the parent glacier were often observed tumbling 
about in the sea. Some of these were four times bigger 
than St. Paul's Cathedral, and shrouded themselves in 
a veil of spray as they rolled over, emitting sounds that 
could only be compared to terrific thunder-peals, and 
turning up the blue mud from depths of two and three 
hundred fathoms. Oscillations in the sea were pro- 
duced by such disturbances, which, after travelling a 
dozen miles, pounded into fragments the ice-field on 
which they ultimately fell. 

While icebergs are the slow growth of ages, the 
fields or shoals of saline ice are annually formed and 
destroyed. The ice generated from melted snow is 
hard, pellucid, and often swells to an enormous height 
and dimensions. But the concretion of salt water wants 
solidity, clearness, and strength, and never attains to 
any very considerable thickness. It seldom floats dur- 
ing more than part of the year ; though, in some cold 
seasons, the scattered fragments may be surprised by 
the early frost, and preserved till the following summer. 

Captain Penny's expedition reached the entrance of 
Wellington Channel on the 25th of August. On the 
14th of September young ice formed round the ships ; 
and they were compelled to take up their winter quar- 
ters in Assistance Bay, near the south-west point of 
Wellington Channel. Captain Austin's squadron, of 
four ships, was fixed on Griffith's Island, a few miles 
further west. November *7th, the sun was beneath the 
horizon at noon, the thermometer was seven degrees 
below zero, and the sea-ice three feet thick. January 
13th, mercury froze for the first time. At the end of 
January the ice was five feet thick. The sun rose 




llllLip II 



WINTER CLIMATE. 293 

above the southern horizon for an instant at noon, 
February Tth. February 24th was the coldest day, 
the thermometer sinking forty-five degrees below zero. 
April 3d, the ice was seven feet thick. In the beginning 
of May it attained its maximum thickness of seven feet 
nine inches. June 12th, the thermometer rose to 55°, 
the highest point of the season. Two days after, the 
first rain fell. At the end of June small streams of 
water began to flow from the land. At the end of July 
the sea-ice was diminished to a thickness of four feet by 
the melting of the upper surface. August 8th, the bay- 
ice broke up, and set the ships free, after eleven 
months' close detention. Four days afterwards, the 
young ice began again to form on the sea at night. 

Throughout this winter of intense cold, the tempera- 
ture of the sea remained nearly uniform. It never sank 
so low as twenty-nine degrees. A hole was kept open 
through the ice, near the ships, for the purpose of 
observing the water, as well as for noticing the rise 
and fall of the tides. The ice invariably increased its 
thickness by additions to its lower surface. As the 
sea-water froze, a considerable portion of its salt was 
separated from it, and blown along the surface of the 
ice, mixing with the fresh-fallen snow as it went. On 
this account snow-wreaths could never be used for 
melting into water ; the snow on the land often con 
tained traces of salt, miles away from the sea. The 
sea-ice hardly ever contained more than one quarter the 
quantity of salt found in an equal volume of sea-water. 

The interior of the ships was warmed to between 
forty and fifty degrees. This was found to be the 
highest limit of safety ; in it, the hoar-frost was never 
thawed in the beds ; the blankets and night-caps of the 
sleepers often adhered inconveniently to the ships' 
planks. With a higher temperature, the vapor of the 
25* 



294 WINTEE CLIMATE. 

interior of the ships was deposited in the beds as moist- 
ure instead of ice, and then rheumatic attacks were 
troublesome among the crew. With this rang-e, the 
difference of heat experienced on going into the open 
air often amounted to one hundred degrees. 

Much less food was consumed during the winter's 
rest than during the labors of summer. On this ac- 
count, the provisions were served out without weighing, 
and considerable weekly savings were effected. The 
men took instinctively just what nourishment the waste 
of their bodies required. 

A vast abundance of the lower forms of life was found 
everywhere in the inclement region in which the ships 
sojourned. Small cavities, from two to six feet deep, 
studded the under surface of the sea-ice. A greenish, 
slimy substance, composed of animalcules and micro- 
scopic plants, was found in these. The cavities, in 
fact, had been hollowed out by the higher temperature 
attendant upon the vital action going on in these minute 
creatures. The most intense cold seemed to have the 
power of destroying some kinds of life-germs. Mity 
cheese, that had been exposed throughout the winter, 
never again manifested any return of crawling propen- 
sity. 

The influence of solar light was exceedingly small 
during the depth of winter. A little trace of daylight 
was always perceptible at noon; but for seven days 
before and after the 22d of December, chloride of silver 
was not blackened by exposure to the south horizon. 
On the 1st of January it began to assume a slight leaden 
tinge. Mustard and cresses were reared with great 
care ; but the young plants were composed of ninety- 
four per cent, of water, and contained only half the 
quantity of nutritious and antiscorbutic matters that 
had been present in the seeds. 



ESQUIMAUX DOGS. 295 

The men were kept amused during the winter by the- 
atrical representations, balls, and masquerades, after 
Captain Parry^s example ; but the schools and libraries 
were the most valuable auxiliaries in preventing ennui. 
Geographical studies were especially popular. After 
the nightly lessons, it was often necessary to settle 
forecastle disputes as to the insular character of Cape 
Horn, the Roman Catholic faith of the Chinese, and the 
identity of the crocodiles of the Nile with the alligators 
of the Mississippi. 

Far from the least interesting members of this Arctic 
community were a kennel of Esquimaux dogs, that had 
been established in a snow-hut near the ships. The 
four oldest had accompanied Mr. Petersen, the Danish 
interpreter, from Greenland. But these had thriven 
and multiplied amid the congenial scenes of ice and 
snow, so that complete teams for two sledges could be 
furnished out in spring. They were great favorites 
among the seamen, and flocked eagerly round the first 
person who emerged from the snow-covered ships in 
the morning. They were, nevertheless, of highly jeal- 
ous temperament ; for, if one of them chanced to receive 
more notice than his companions, the lucky fellow was 
forthwith attacked by the rest of the pack. This so 
constantly occurred, that some of the cunning young 
dogs became afraid of the men's caresses, and ran away 
the moment any marked demonstrations of kindness 
were directed towards them. 

In many points, amusing instances of the adaptation 
of canine instinct to the necessities of Arctic life were 
displayed. In fine, sunny weather, the dogs satisfied 
their thirst by lapping the surface snow ; but in colder 
periods of the season they burrowed some inches down 
for their supply of frozen water. In extremely severe 
weather, they constantly coiled themselves closely up, 



296 ESQUIMAUX DOGS. 

and covered their noses with the shaggy fur of their 
tails. At these times, they never rose even to shake 
off the accumulating wreaths of falling snow ; if their 
masters called them, they answered by turning their 
eyes, but without removing their natural respirators 
from their nostrils, and no demonstration, short of a 
determined kick, could make them shift their quarters ; 
but, at other times, they lay stretched out at full length, 
and were on their legs in obedience to the first tone of 
a familiar voice. 

The young dogs had to learn some painful expe- 
riences. The first time they were taken to the open 
water, they mistook it for ice, coolly walked into it, 
and were nearly drowned. One poor fellow undertook 
to lick a tempting morsel of fat from an iron shovel, 
when, greatly to his surprise, the cold metal stuck fast 
to his tongue, and he dragged the shovel along for some 
distance, at last only extricating himself from it by a 
strong effort, and at the expense of leaving some inches 
of mucous membrane behind him. When the dogs 
were employed in sledging-work, it was no uncommon 
thing for them to start off with their loads in full pur- 
suit of bears. In the spring, two carrier-pigeons were 
despatched in the car of a small balloon. The balloon 
fell upon the ice, while still in sight, and dragged along 
for some distance. An object that was so full of interest 
to their masters could not, by any means, be slighted 
by the dogs ; in a moment they were all off after it, the 
men following them pell-mell to save the pigeons. The 
four-footed animals had by far the best of the race ; but 
the balloon, fortunately for its freight, cleared the edge 
of the ice just as they came up with it. When the ice 
around the ships broke up, the dogs understood the 
indication, and galloped about in mad joy, leaping from 
piece to piece, and whining restlessly, or swimming 



USE OF SNOW. 297 

round the ship until they were picked up and established 
upon the decks. 

The Esquimaux dog is described as resembling in 
form the shepherd's dog, rising to the height of the 
Newfoundland, but broad like the mastiff; having short 
pricked ears, a furry coat, and a bushy tail. In general 
they are observed to bear a strong resemblance to the 
wolf, and the opinion is even prevalent that the former 
exhibit only the latter in a tamed state ; but the avidity 
with which the wolf devours his supposed brethren does 
not seem quite consistent with so close an affinity. 
Frequent beatings are necessary to train these dogs for 
acting as a regular team. But their greatest sufferings 
respect the want of food. Captain Parry saw one which 
ate a large piece of canvas, a cotton handkerchief laid 
out to dry, and a piece of a linen shirt. When these 
animals are yoked in the sledge, a whip of twenty feet 
long enforces obedience ; while peculiar cries indicate 
the right or left, to turn, or to stop. 

A singular fact is related in Dr. Sutherland's journal 
in regard to the use of snow for allaying thirst : " The 
use of snow when persons are thirsty does not by any 
means allay the insatiable desire for water ; on the con- 
trary, it appears to be increased in proportion to the 
quantity used, and the frequency with which it is put 
into the mouth. For example : a person walking along 
feels intensely thirsty, and he looks to his feet with 
coveting eyes ; but his sense and firm resolutions are 
not to be overcome so easily, and he withdraws the 
open hand that was to grasp the delicious morsel and 
convey it into his parching mouth. He has several 
miles of a journey to accomplish, and his thirst is every 
moment increasing ; he is perspiring profusely, and 
feels quite hot and oppressed. At length his good res- 
olutions stagger, and he partakes of the smallest par- 



298 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

tide, which produces a most exhilarating effect ; in less 
than ten minutes he tastes again and again, always 
increasing the quantity ; and in half an hour he has a 
gum-stick of condensed snow, which he masticates with 
avidity, and replaces with assiduity the moment that it 
has melted away. But his thirst is not allayed in the 
slightest degree ; he is as hot as ever, and still per- 
spires ; his mouth is in flames, and he is driven to the 
necessity of quenching them with snow, which adds 
fuel to the fire. The melting snow ceases to please the 
palate, and it feels like red-hot coals, which, like a fire- 
eater, he shifts about with his tongue, and swallows 
without the addition of saliva. He is in despair ; but 
habit has taken the place of his reasoning faculties, and 
he moves on with languid steps, lamenting the severe 
fate which forces him to persist in a practice which in 
an unguarded moment he allowed to begin. ... I 
believe the true cause of such intense thirst is the ex- 
treme dryness of the air when the temperature is low.'' 

The result of Captain Penny's labors, so far as explor- 
ation is concerned, is already known. Sledging parties 
went out in the spring. A large whaling-boat was 
dragged bodily up Wellington Channel, and launched 
in the clear water beyond the ice-barrier. Two thou- 
sand miles were travelled over, seven hundred and ten 
of which were in districts seen for the first time by human 
eyes. No further traces of the missing expedition were, 
however, found. The Lady Franklin and Sophia left 
Assistance Bay, homeward bound, on the 12th of Au- 
gust ; five weeks afterwards, they were in the Thames. 

We have seen that Mr. Grrinnell's expedition was 
undertaken with two small brigs — the Advance and the 
Eescue. The Advance was intended originally for car- 
rying heavy castings from an iron foundery. Both ves- 
sels were strengthened with great skill and at large 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 299 

expense for the Arctic service. The vessels were 
placed under the command of Lieut. De Haven. His 
officers consisted of Mr. Murdoch, sailing-master ; Dr. 
E. K. Kane, surgeon and naturalist ; and Mr. Lovell, 
midshipman. The Advance had a crew of twelve men 
when she sailed ; but two of them complaining of sick- 
ness, and expressing a desire to return home, were left 
at the Danish settlement at Disco Island, on the coast 
of Greenland. 

The expedition passed the eastern extremity of New- 
foundland, June 3d, 1850, ten days after leaving Sandy 
Hook, and then sailed east-north-east, directly for Cape 
Comfort, on the coast of Greenland, The weather was 
generally fine ; and only a single accident occurred on 
the voyage to that country of frost and snow. Off the 
coast of Labrador they met an iceberg making its way 
toward the tropics. The night was very dark ; and the 
Advance, going at the rate of seven or eight knots an 
hour, ran against the huge voyager, and lost her jib- 
boom. 

The voyagers did not land at Cape Comfort, but, 
turning northward, sailed along the south-west coast of 
Greenland, sometimes in an open sea, and sometimes in 
the midst of broad acres of broken ice (particularly in 
Davis's Straits), as far as Whale Island. From this 
place a boat, with two officers and four seamen, was 
sent to Disco Island, a distance of about twenty-six 
miles, to a Danish settlement there, to procure skin 
clothing and other articles necessary for use during the 
rigors of a polar winter. The officers were entertained 
at the government house, while the seamen were com- 
fortably lodged with the Esquimaux, sleeping in fur 
bags at night. They returned to the ship the following 
day, and the expedition proceeded on its voyage. 
When passing the little Danish settlement of Uper- 



800 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

navik, they were boarded by natives for the first time. 
They were out in government whale-boats, hunting for 
ducks and seals. These hardy children of the Arctic 
Circle were not shy, for through the Danes, the English 
whalers, and government expeditions, they had become 
acquainted with men of other latitudes. 

When the expedition reached Melville Bay, which, 
on account of its fearful character, is also called the 
Devil's Nip, the voyagers began to witness more of the 
grandeur and perils of Arctic scenes. Icebergs of all 
dimensions came bearing down from the polar seas like 
vast squadrons, and the roar of their rending came 
over the waters like the booming of the heavy broad- 
sides of contending navies. They also encountered 
immense floes, with only narrow channels between ; 
and at times their situation was exceedingly perilous. 

On one occasion, after heaving through fields of ice 
for five consecutive weeks, two immense floes, between 
which they were making their way, gradually approached 
each other ; and for several hours they expected their 
tiny vessels — tiny when compared with the mighty 
objects around them — would be crushed. An immense 
calf of ice, six or eight feet thick, slid under the Rescue, 
lifting her almost ''high and dry,'' and careening her 
partially upon her beam ends. By means of ice-anchors 
(large iron hooks) they kept her from capsizing. In 
this position they remained about sixty hours, when, 
with saws and axes, they succeeded in relieving her. 
The ice now opened a little, and they finally warped 
through into clear water. While they were thus con- 
fined, polar bears came around them in abundance, 
greedy for prey, and the seamen indulged a little in the 
perilous sports of the chase. 

The open sea continued but a short time, when they 
again became entangled among bergs, floes, and hum- 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 301 

mocks, and encountered the most fearful perils. Some- 
times they anchored their vessels to icebergs, and some- 
times to floes and to masses of hummock. On one of 
these occasions, while the cook, an active Frenchman, 
was upon a berg, making a place for an anchor, the 
mass of ice split beneath him, and he was dropped 
through the yawning fissure into the water, a distance 
of almost thii'ty feet. Fortunately, the masses, as is 
often the case, did not close up again, but floated apart, 
and the poor cook was hauled on board more dead than 
alive, from excessive fright. It was in this fearful 
region that they first encountered pack-ice, and there 
they were locked in from the tth to the 23d of July. 

While in this situation they were joined by the British 
yacht Prince Albert, under Captain Forsyth, and to- 
gether the three vessels were anchored, for a while, to 
an immense field of ice, in sight of the Devil's Thumb, a 
high, rocky peak, situated in latitude 74° 22'. It was 
now about thirty miles distant, and, with the dark hills 
adjacent, presented a strange aspect where all was 
white and glittering. The peak and the hills are masses 
of rock, with occasionally a lichen or-a moss growing 
upon their otherwise naked surfaces. In the midst of 
the vast ice-field loomed up many lofty hergs, all of them 
in slow and majestic motion. 

From the Devil's Thumb the American vessels passed 
onward through the pack toward Sabine's Islands, 
while the Prince Albert essayed to make a more west- 
erly course. They reached Cape York at the beginning 
of August. Far across the ice, landward, they discov- 
ered, through their glasses, several men, apparently 
making signals ; and for a while they rejoiced in the 
belief that they saw a portion of Sir John, Franklin's 
companions. Four men were despatched, with a whale- 
boat, to reconnoitre. They soon discovered the men to 
26 



302 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

be Esquimaux, who, by signs, professed great friend- 
ship, and endeavored to get the voyagers to accompany 
them to their homes beyond the hills. They declined ; 
and, as soon as they returned to the vessel, the expedi- 
tion again pushed forward, and made its way to Cape 
Dudley Digges, which they reached on the Tth of 
August. 

At Cape Dudley Digges they sighted the Crimson 
Cliffs, a name suggested by the patches of red snow, 
which in the distance impart a rose-hue color to the 
acclivities. These lofty cliffs are of dark brown stone. 
It was a magnificent sight, in that cold region, to see 
such an apparently warm object standing out in bold 
relief against the dark blue back-ground of a polar sky. 
This was the most northern point to which the expedi- 
tion penetrated. The whole coast which they had 
passed from Disco to this cape is high, rugged, and 
barren, only some of the low points, stretching into the 
sea, bearing a species of dwarf fir. North-east from the 
cape rise the Arctic Highlands, to an unknown altitude ; 
and, stretching away northward, was the then unex- 
plored Smith's Spund, filled with impenetrable ice. 

From Cape Dudley Digges, the Advance and Rescue, 
beating against wind and tide in the midst of the ice- 
fields, made Wolstenholme Sound, and then, changing 
their course to the south-west, emerged from the fields 
into the open waters of Lancaster Sound. Here, on the 
18th of August, 1850, they encountered a tremendous 
gale, which lasted about twenty-four hours. The two 
vessels parted company during the storm, and remained 
separate several days. Across Lancaster Sound, the 
Advance made her way to Barrow's Straits, and on the 
22d discovered the Prince Albert on the southern shore 
of the straits, near Leopold Island, a mass of lofty, pre- 
cipitous rocks, dark and barren, and hooded and draped 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 303 

with snow. The weather was fine, and soon the officers 
and crews of the two vessels met in friendly greeting. 
Those of the Prince Albert were much astonished at the 
encounter. They had left the Americans in Melville 
Bay on the 6th, pressing northward through the pack ; 
and could not conceive how they so soon and safely 
penetrated it, when the Prince, though towed by a 
steamer, had made such poor progress. Captain For- 
syth had attempted to reach a particular point, where 
he intended to remain through the winter ; but, finding 
the passage thereto completely blocked up with ice, he 
had resolved, on the very day when the Americans 
appeared, to return home. 

The two vessels remained together a day or two, 
when they parted company, the Prince Albert to return 
to England, and the Advance to make further explora- 
tions. Off Leopold Island, on the 23d of August, the 
Advance took the lead through the vast masses of float- 
ing ice. '' The way was before them,'' says Mr. Snow, 
of the Prince Albert, who stood upon the deck of the 
Advance ; " the stream of ice had to be either gone 
through boldly, or a long detour made ; and, despite the 
heaviness of the stream, they pushed the vessel through 
in her proper course. Two or three shocks, as she came 
in contact with some large pieces, were unheeded ; and 
the moment the last block was past the bow, the officer 
sang out, ' So ! steady as she goes on her course ; ' and 
came aft as if nothing more than ordinary sailing had 
been going on. I observed our own little bark nobly 
following in the American's wake ; and, as I afterward 
learned, she got through it pretty well, though not with- 
out much doubt of the propriety of keeping on in such 
procedure after the * mad Yankee,' as he was called by 
our mate." 

From Leopold Island the Advance proceeded to the 



304 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

north-west, and on the 25th reached Cape Eiley, another 
amorphous mass, not so regular and precipitate as 
Leopold Island, but more lofty. Here a strong tide, 
setting in to the shore, drifted the Advance toward the 
beach, where she stranded. Around her were small 
bergs and large masses of floating ice, all under the 
influence of the strong current. It was about two 
o'clock in the afternoon when she struck. By diligent 
labor in removing everything from her deck to a small 
floe, she was so lightened, that at four o'clock the next 
morning she floated, and soon everything was properly 
replaced. 

Near Cape Eiley the Americans fell in with a portion 
of an English expedition ; and there also the Rescue, 
left behind in the gale in Lancaster Sound, overtook the 
Advance. There was Captain Penny, with the Sophia 
and Lady Franklin ; the veteran Sir John Ross, with 
the Felix, and Commodore Austin, with his flag-ship 
the Resolute. Together the navigators of both nations 
explored the coast at and near Cape Riley, and on the 
2*7 th they saw in a cove on the shore of Beechey Island, 
or Beechey Cape, on the east side of the entrance to 
Wellington Channel, unmistakable evidence that Sir 
John Franklin and his companions were there in April, 
1846. There- they found the articles known to belong 
to Franklin's ships, as described in the preceding chap- 
ter. They also visited the graves, the inscriptions on 
which we have already given. 

How much later than April 3d (the date upon one of 
the head-boards) Franklin remained at Beechey, cannot 
be determined. There were evidences of his having 
gone northward, for sledge-tracks in that direction were 
visible. It was the opinion of Dr. Kane that, on the 
breaking up of the ice in the spring. Sir John Franklin 
passed northward with his ships through Wellington 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 



305 ' 



Channel into the great polar basin, and that he did not 
return. This, too, was the opinion of Captain Penny, 
who zealously urged the British government to send a 
powerful screw steamer to pass through that channel 
and explore the coasts beyond. 

Leaving Beechey Cape, the American expedition 
forced its way through the ice to Barlow's Inlet, where 
they narrowly escaped being frozen in for the winter. 
They endeavored to enter the inlet, for the purpose of 




ADVANCE AND RESCUE IN BARLO^V S IN^LET. 



making it their winter quarters, but were prevented by 
the mass of pack-ice at its entrance. 

It was on the 4th of September, 1850, when the 
Advance and Rescue arrived at Barlow's Inlet ; but, 
26* 



806 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

after remaining seven or eight days, they abandoned the 
attempt to enter. On the right and left of the entrance 
were dark rocks, in the centre the frozen waters, and 
beyond, a range of hills. There was much smooth ice 
within the inlet, and, while the vessels lay anchored to 
the " field," officers and crew exercised and amused 
themselves by skating. On the left of the inlet they 
discovered a cairn (a heap of stones with a cavity), 
eight or ten feet in height, which was erected by Capt. 
Ommaney, of the English expedition then in the polar 
waters. Within it he had placed two letters, for " whom 
it might concern." Commander De Haven also depos- 
ited a letter there. It is believed to be the only post- 
office in the world free for the' use of all nations. The 
rocks here presented vast fissures made by the frost ; 
and at the foot of the cliff" on the right that powerful 
agent had cast down vast heaps of debris. 

From Barlow's Inlet the American expedition moved 
slowly westward, battling with the ice every rood of 
the way, until they reached Griffin's Island, at about 
96° west longitude from Greenwich. This was attained 
on the 11th of September, and was the extreme westing 
made by the expedition. All beyond seemed impene- 
trable ice ; and, despairing of making any further dis- 
coveries before the winter should set in, they resolved 
to return home. Turning eastward, they hoped to reach 
Davis's Straits by the southern route, before the cold 
and darkness came on ; but they were doomed to disap- 
pointment. Near the entrance to Wellington Channel 
they became completely locked in by hummock -ice, and 
soon found themselves drifting with an irresistible tide 
up that channel toward the pole. 

Now began the most perilous adventures of the navi- 
gators. The summer day was drawing to a close ; the 
diurnal visits of the pale sun were rapidly shortening, 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 307 

and soon the long polar night, with all its darkness and 
horrors, would fall upon them. Slowly they drifted in 
those vast fields of ice, whither, or to what result, they 
knew not. Locked in the moving yet compact mass ; 
liable every moment to be crushed ; far away from land ; 
the mercury sinking daily lower and lower from the zero 
figure, toward the point where that metal fi-eezes, they 
felt small hope of ever reaching home again. Yet they 
prepared for winter comforts and winter sports, as cheer- 
fully as if lying safe in Barlow's Inlet. As the winter 
advanced, the crews of both vessels went on board the 
larger one. They unshipped the rudders of each to 
prevent their being injured by the ice, covered the deck 
of the Advance with felt, prepared their stores, and 
made arrangements for enduring the long winter, now 
upon them. Physical and mental activity being neces- 
sary for the preservation of health, they daily exercised 
in the open air for several hours. They built ice huts, 
hunted the huge white bears and the little polar foxes, 
and, during the darkness of the winter night, they 
arranged in-door amusements and employments. 

Before the end of October, the sun made its appear- 
ance for the last time, and the awful polar night closed 
in. Early in November they wholly abandoned the 
Rescue, and both crews made the Advance their perma- 
nent winter home. The cold soon became intense ; the 
mercury congealed, and the spirit thermometer indi- 
cated 46° below zero. Its average range was 30° to 
35°. They had drifted helplessly up Wellington Chan- 
nel almost to the latitude from whence Captain Penn^ 
saw an open sea, supposed to be the great polar basin, 
where there is a more genial clime than that which inter- 
venes between the Arctic Circle and the 15th degree. 
Here, when almost in sight of the open ocean, that 
mighty polar tide, with its vast masses of ice, suddenly 



308 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

ebbed, and our little vessels were carried back, as resist- 
lessly as before, through Barrow's Straits, into Lancaster 
Sound. All this while the immense fields of hummock- 
ice were moving, and the vessels were in hourly danger 
of being crushed and destroyed. At length, while drift- 
ing through Barrow's Straits, the congealed mass, as if 
crushed together by the opposite shores, became more 
compact, and the Advance was elevated almost seven 
feet by the stern, and keeled two feet eight inches, star- 
board. In this position she remained, with very little 
alteration, for five consecutive months ; for, soon after 
entering Baffin's Bay in the midst of the winter, the ice 
became frozen in one immense tract, covering millions 
of acres. 

Thus frozen in, sometimes more than a hundred miles 
from land, they drifted slowly along the south-west coast 
of Baffin's Bay, a distance of more than a thousand miles 
from Wellington Channel. For eleven weeks that 
dreary night continued, and during that time the disc of 
the sun was never seen above the horizon. Yet nature 
was not wholly forbidding in aspect. Sometimes the 
aurora borealis would flash up still further northward ; 
and sometimes mock suns and mock moons would appear, 
in varied beauty, in the starry sky. Brilliant, too, were 
the northern constellations ; and when the real moon 
was at its full, it made its stately circuit in the heavens 
without descending below the horizon, and lighted up 
the vast piles of ice with a pale lustre, almost as vivid 
as the morning twilights of more genial skies. 

Around the vessels the crews built a wall of ice ; and 
in ice huts they stowed away their cordage and stores, to 
make room for exercise on the decks. They organized a 
theatrical company, and amused themselves and the offi- 
cers with comedy well performed. Behind the pieces of 
hummock each actor learned his part ; and by means of 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 309 

calico tliey transformed themselves into female charac- 
ters, as occasion required. These dramas were acted 
upon the deck of the Advance, sometimes while the ther- 
mometer indicated 30° below zero ; and actors and audi- 
ence highly enjoyed the fun. They also went out in par- 
ties during that long night, fully armed, to hunt the polar 
bear, the grim monarch of the frozen north, on which 
occasions they often encountered perilous adventures. 
They played at foot-ball, and exercised themselves in 
drawing sledges heavily laden with provisions. Five 
hours of each twentj^-four they thus exercised in the 
open air, and once a week each man washed his whole 
body in cold snow-water. Serious sickness was conse- 
quently avoided ; and the scurvy, which attacked them, 
soon yielded to remedies. 

Often, during that fearful night, they expected the 
disaster of having their vessels crushed. All through 
November and December, before the ice became fast, 
they slept in their clothes, with knapsacks on their 
backs, and sledges upon the ice, laden with stores, not 
knowing at what moment the vessels might be demol- 
ished, and themselves forced to leave them, and make 
their way toward land. On the 8th of December, and 
the 23d of January, they actually lowered their boats 
and stood upon the ice, for the crushing masses were 
making the timbers of the gallant vessel creak, and its 
decks to rise in the centre. They were then ninety 
miles from land, and hope hardly whispered an encour- 
aging idea of life being sustained. On the latter occa- 
sion, when officers and crew stood upon the ice, with the 
ropes of their provision-sledges in their hands, a terrible 
snow-drift came from the north-east, and intense dark- 
ness shrouded them. Had the vessel then been crushed, 
all must have perished. 

A strange picture might have been seen on Christmas 



310 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

day, 1850, by a spirit who could have roamed from end 
to end of the icy continent, and taken it in at a glance. 
No less than ten Arctic discovery-ships were winter- 
ing within a few hundred miles of each other. Under 
Griffith's Island lay her majesty's ships the Resolute, 
Assistance, Pioneer, and Intrepid; in a small bay in 
North Devon were securely sheltered Captain Penny's 
two brigs ; the Investigator lay in Prince of Wales 
Strait ; and at the mouth of Lancaster Sound, drifting 
helplessly in the pack which had borne them already 
twelve degrees to the eastward, were the two unfortu- 
nate ships of the Grinnell expedition. But this was not 
all. Only three to four hundred miles from the Investi- 
gator's winter quarters, Mr. Rae was waiting on the 
border of Great Bear Lake for weather that would allow 
him to start on his land journey. And, in all human 
probability, on that same Christmas day, Sir John Frank- 
lin and his men, the objects of so many expeditions and 
so much anxious hope, were miserably subsisting on 
short allowance somewhere in King William's Land, 
or on the bank of Peel Sound. 

Dr. Kane, who wrote a deeply interesting account of 
the first Grinnell expedition, says, under date of Febru- 
ary 28th, 1851, when, for some days, the average tem- 
perature was 53 degrees below zero : " Cold as it was, 
our mid-day exercise was never interrupted unless by 
wind and drift-storms. We felt the necessity of active 
exercise ; and, although the effort was accompanied with 
pains in the joints, sometimes hardly bearable, we man- 
aged, both officers and crew, to obtain at least three hours 
a day. The exercise consisted of foot-ball and sliding, 
followed by regular games of romps, leap-frog, and tum- 
bling in the snow. By shovelling away near the 
vessel, we obtained a fine bare surface of fresh ice, 
extremely glib and durable. On this we constructed a 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 311 

skating-ground and admirable slides. I walked regu- 
larly over the floes, although the snows were nearly 
impassable. With all this, aided by hosts of hygienic 
resources, feeble, certainly, but still the best at my 
command, scurvy advanced steadily. '' 

On the 21st April Dr. Kane encountered a bear on the 
ice, on which he remarks : *' We are at least eighty 
miles from the nearest land, Cape Kater ; and channels 
innumerable must intervene between us and terra firma. 
Yet this majestic animal, dependent upon his own pred- 
atory resources alone, and, defying cold as well as hun- 
ger, guided by a superb instinct, confides himself to 
these solitary, unstable ice-fields. 

" Parry, in his adventurous polar eff'ort, found these 
animals at the most northern limit of recorded observa- 
tion. Wrangell had them as companions on his first 
Asiatic journey over the Polar Ocean. Navigators have 
also found them floating upon berg and floe far out in 
open sea ; and here we have them in a region some 
seventy miles from the nearest stable ice. They have 
seldom or never — if we except Parry's Spitzbergen 
experience — been seen so far from land. In the great 
majority of cases, they seem to have been accidentally 
caught and carried adrift on disengaged ice-floes. In 
this way they travel to Iceland ; and it may have been 
so, perhaps, with the Spitzbergen instances. 

" There is something very grand about this tawny 
savage : never leaving this utter destitution, this frigid 
inhospitableness ; coupling in May, and bringing forth 
in Christmas time ; a gestation carried on all of it 
below zero, more than half of it in Arctic darkness ; 
living in perpetual snow, and dependent for life upon a 
never-ending activity ; using the frozen water as a raft 
to traverse the open seas, that the water unfrozen may 
yield him the means of life. No time for hibernation 
has this polar tiger ; his life is one great winter.'' 



312 FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

Early in February the northern horizon began to be 
streaked with gorgeous twilight, the herald of the 
approaching sun ; and on the 18th his disc first appeared 
above the horizon. As the golden rim rose above the 
glittering snow-drifts and piles of ice, three hearty 
cheers went up from those hardy mariners, and they 
enthusiastically welcomed their deliverer from the chains 
of frost. Day after day the sun rose higher and higher, 
and vast masses of ice began to yield to his fervid influ- 
ences. The scurvy disappeared, and from that time, 
until their arrival home, not a man suffered from sick- 
ness. As they slowly drifted through Davis's Straits, 
and the ice gave indications of breaking up, the voy- 
agers made preparations Tor sailing. The Rescue was 
reoccupied (May 12th, 1851), and her stern-post, which 
had been broken by the ice in Barrow's Straits, was 
repaired. To accomplish this, they were obliged to dig 
away the ice, which was from twelve to fourteen feet 
thick around her. They re-shipped their rudders ; 
removed the felt covering ; placed their stores on deck, 
and then patiently awaited the disruption of the ice. 
This event was very sudden and appalling. It began 
to give way on the 5th of June, and in the space of 
twenty minutes the whole mass, as far as the eye could 
reach, became one vast field of moving floes. 

On the 10th of June, 1851, they emerged into open 
water a little south of the Arctic Circle, in latitude 65° 
80'. They immediately repaired to Godhaven, on the 
coast of Greenland, where they re-fitted, and, unappalled 
by the perils through which they had just passed, they 
once more turned their prows northward, to encounter 
anew the ice squadrons of Baffin's Bay. Again they 
traversed the coast of Greenland to about the *r3d degree, 
when they bore to the westward, and on the Tth and 8th 
of July passed the English whaling-fleet near the Dutch 



FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 313 

Islands. Onward they pressed through the accumiilat 
ing ice to Baffin's Island, where, on the 11th, they were 
joined by the Prince Albert, then out upon another cruise 
They continued in company until the 3d of August, when 
the Albert departed for the westward, determined to 
try the more southern passage. Here again the Ameri- 
cans encountered vast fields of hummock-ice, and were 
subjected to the most imminent perils. The floating ice, 
as if moved by adverse currents, tumbled in huge masses, 
and reared upon the sides of the sturdy little vessels 
like monsters of the deep intent upon destruction. 
These masses broke in the bulwarks, and sometimes fell 
over upon the decks with terrible force, like rocks 
rolled over a plain by mountain torrents. The noise 
was fearful — so deafening that the mariners could 
scarcely hear each other's voices. The sounds of these 
rolling masses, together with the rending of the icebergs 
floating near, and the vast floes, produced a din like the 
discharge of a thousand pieces of ordnance upon a field 
of battle. 

Finding the north and west closed against further 
progress, by impenetrable ice, Be Haven was balked ; 
and, turning his vessels homeward, they came out into 
an open sea somewhat crippled, but not a plank seri- 
ously started. During a storm off the banks of New- 
foundland, a thousand miles fi-om New York, the vessels 
parted company. The Advance arrived safely at the 
Navy Yard, at Brooklyn, on the 30th of September, 1851 ; 
and the Rescue joined her there a few days afterward. 
Toward the close of October the government resigned 
the vessels into the hands of Mr. Grinnell, to be used in 
other service, but with the stipulation that they were to 
be subject to the order of the Secretary of the Navy in 
the spring, if required for another expedition in search 
of Sir John Franklin. 
27 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE PRINCE ALBERT REFITTED BY LADY FRANKLIN. MR. KENNEDY THE 

COMMANDER. — DEPARTURE OF THE VESSEL. — UPERNAVIK. TRIAL OF 

CARRIER-PIGEONS. — DISASTROUS SEPARATION. RELIEF AND REUNION. 

PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING. — WINTER JOURNEYS. — VISIT TO 

FURY BEACH. THE GRAND JOURNEY. SEVERE GALE. THE FURY'S 

STORES. — DOGS. — CAIRNS NOT ALWAYS SEEN. — CAPE WALKER. — 

RETURN TO BATTY BAY. HOMEWARD BOUND. BELLOT. RAE's LAND 

JOURNEY IN 1851. 

The discovery of the traces of Franklin's visit to 
Point Riley, the account of which was brought home by 
the Prince Albert, gave encouragement for a renewal of 
the search. On the 3d of June, 1851, the Prince Albert, 
which had been refitted by Lady Franklin for the pur- 
pose of exploring the shores of Prince Regent's Inlet, 
set sail from Stromness. She was under the command 
of Mr. William Kennedy, formerly in the service of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and who has published an 
interesting narrative of his adventures. 

The Prince Albert had been well strengthened for 
encounters with ponderous masses of ice. Along her 
sides, from the keel to about two feet above the water- 
line, there was a doubling of elm planking of fully two 
and a half inches thick, intended not only to fortify the 
hull of the little vessel, but to preserve her sides from 
the tear and wear of sailing through, and rubbing 
against, sharp, rasping pieces of ice. The bow and 
stern-post were sheathed with wrought iron a quarter 
of an inch thick, and a broad strip of thick sheet-iron 



BELLOT.— HEPBURN. 315 

ran aloiig- the water-line as far aft as the main-mast. 
Her hold was a perfect labyrinth of cross-beams and 
massive fastenings, to enable her to withstand the evil 
consequences of a ''nip ; " and the arrangements gener- 
ally were conducted in a manner which, while it indi- 
cated the dangerous nature of the service, also served 
to assure her crew that nothing had been left undone 
which could in any way conduce to their comfort and 
safety. 

She was supplied with several boats. One was made 
of gutta-percha, and another of mahogany ; the third 
being a small dingy, of the ordinary kind. She had also 
one of Halkett's Mackintosh boats, and a tin kayak, 
made in imitation of those used by the Esquimaux. 
Dressed moose-skins and parchment, to be converted 
during the voyage into moccasins, snow-shoes, dog- 
sledge-traces, &c., were abundantly supplied. Pro- 
vision for two years was put on board, and part of this 
consisted of a ton and a half of pemmican. 

The ship's company consisted of eighteen in all, in- 
cluding Mr. Kennedy, the commander. Lieutenant J. 
Bellot, the second in command, and Mr. Cowie, the sur- 
geon. Bellot was a spirited young oflScer from the 
French navy, whose romantic love of adventure led him 
to offer his services to Lady Franklin in the search 
which had now been going on for some years. He 
soon proved himself to be in every way a most useful 
auxiliary, and an honor to the nation to which he 
belonged. 

Among the crew, who were all picked men, there was 
John Hepburn, who will be remembered by every reader 
of Arctic travel as the faithful attendant of Sir John 
Franklin during his first adventurous, and in some 
respects tragic journey, through North America. Hep- 
burn's spirit was fired with an irresistible desire to assist 



316 UPERNAVIK. 

in searching for the hero with whom, in his youth, he 
had shared the perils of the wilderness ; and now, in his 
old age, he was going to face a wilder form of perils on 
the ice-laden waters of the Polar Sea. Another of the 
men had travelled with Dr. Rae, on his first expedition 
to Repulse Bay ; and another had accompanied Sir 
John Richardson in his boat journey through the inte- 
rior of America. Lady Franklin herself was present to 
see the vessel off. She took an affectionate leave of 
officers and crew ; and the Prince Albert bounded from 
the shore and stretched out into the wide Atlantic, the 
Union-Jack at her peak, and the French flag, in honor 
of Lieutenant Bellot, flying at the fore. 

On Sunday, the 24th of June, they descried the coast 
of Greenland on the distant horizon. In Baffin's Bay 
they were visited by the captains of two whaling-vessels, 
who created great excitement by telling them of the 
discovery of Franklin's winter quarters in 1845, with 
the details of which the reader is already acquainted. 
This information induced Kennedy to direct his course 
to Upernavik, the Danish colony on the west coast of 
Greenland, partly for the purpose of taking in additional 
supplies for the use of the winter travelling parties, but 
chiefly with the hope of gaining further information of 
the recent discoveries, from the American searching 
vessels which had wintered in the pack. In this, how- 
ever, he was disappointed. 

Of Upernavik, which he reached June 10th, 1851, 
Kennedy says : '' It is one of that interesting group of 
little colonies with which the enterprise of the Danes 
has dotted the west coast of Greenland. Here, con- 
siderably within the Arctic Circle, we found a Christian 
community, not only living, but, after a fashion, thriv- 
ing. We were informed by the governor that there were, 
even at this early period of the season, one thousand 



UPERNAVIK. 317 

Danish tons of oil and blubber stored, from the produce 
of the summer fishery. There was likewise visible evi- 
dence in every direction of an abundance of venison, 
water-fowl, and eggs, as well as seals. The houses 
were built of wood, very small, and had a singularly 
amphibious look about them, from being covered with 
tar from top to bottom, — appearing, for all the world, 
like so many upturned herring-boats, ready, on any 
emergency, to take to the water. 

" A party of the Esquimaux, attached to the settle- 
ment, had come in with the produce of some hunting 
excursion in which they had been engaged ; and I was 
much struck with their intelligence, and their well-clad, 
comfortable, and healthy appearance. This, I learned, 
was in a great measure due to the benevolent interest 
of the Danish government in their behalf. There is not 
a station, I was given to understand, along the whole 
coast of Greenland, which has not its missionary and 
its schoolmaster for the instruction of the natives ; and, 
judging from what we saw and learned at Upernavik, 
the Danish exchequer is not without material and sub- 
stantial proofs of the gratitude of the poor ' Innuit.^ 
Thus instructed, cared for, and their energies disciplined 
and directed, the Esquimaux of Greenland give employ- 
ment to six ships annually, in carrying the produce of 
their hunts and fisheries to Denmark.'' 

At this place six large Esquimaux dogs, for dragging 
sledges, were purchased. A few pairs of seal-skin 
boots, shoes, and trousers, a la Esquimaux, were also 
procured, and the Prince Albert proceeded on her 
voyage. The much-dreaded ''middle ice" was reached 
soon after leaving, and four days were spent in passing 
through it to the western side of the bay, during which 
time the men were constantly employed in saihng, 
boring, pushing, thumping, and warping — not unfre- 
2Y^ 



318 CAKRIER-PIGEONS. — ESQUIMAUX. 

quently exposed to the perilous nips, which are some- 
times productive of such dire consequences. At this 
point in the voyage it was deemed advisable to test the 
powers of some carrier-pigeons with which they had 
been provided ; but the poor birds refused to take the 
long flight to England, and resolutely persisted in 
returning to the ship again, after a short survey of the 
icy region in which they were let loose. 

During the passage of the middle-ice, a large quantity 
of provisions had been got up on deck, to be ready in 
case an unfortunate crush should sink the vessel. This 
was now re-stowed in the hold, on getting into the 
comparatively clear western waters of Baffin's Bay. 

One evening about this time, while they were sailing 
quietly among beautiful and fantastically formed frag- 
ments of ice, which obliged them frequently to deviate 
a little from their course, a shout was heard ringing 
through the calm, still atmosphere, and very soon four 
Esquimaux paddled out to them in their seal-skin kayaks. 
They speedily clambered on board, and one of the crew 
happening to have some slight knowledge of English, a 
vigorous flow of query and reply commenced, in the 
course of which much useful information as to the 
nature of the coast and inlets was obtained. One, 
especially, proved to be an expert draftsman, and by 
means of a bit of chalk drew on the deck the outlines 
of various parts of the coast, which were of some service. 

The progress of the vessel was now much interrupted 
by ice and contrary gales. All attempts to reach Cape 
Riley, and, subsequently, to enter Leopold Harbor, 
were completely frustrated. Far as the eye could reach 
down the west side of Prince Regent's Inlet, — which 
was to be the scene of their searching operations, — 
huge barriers of ice met the view. The voyagers 
pushed boldly in amongst it, however, and succeeded. 



DISASTROUS SEPARATION. 319 

after a tortuous course, in reaching Elwin Bay, which 
they found quite closed up. Batty Bay and Fury Beach 
were next visited, where they met with similar disap- 
pointment, and where they also perceived that the ice — 
between which and the shore they had been sailing — 
was setting down upon them ; so thoy were obliged to 
beat a hasty retreat, in order to escape being crushed 
to pieces. It was now obviously fruitless to attempt 
the western side of the inlet under present circum- 
stances ; so they put about and ran for Port Bowen, on 
the eastern shore, which was comparatively free from 
ice. Here they found traces of the party which wintered 
at this spot with Sir Edward Parry, in 1825. 

To winter here, while all their intended work lay on 
the other shore of the inlet, was quite out of the ques- 
tion ; so it was resolved at all hazards to attempt a 
landing again. Accordingly, on the 9th of September, 
they recrossed the strait, and succeeded in approaching 
close enough to the shore to render an attempt to l.md 
somewhat feasible. The gutta-percha boat was there- 
fore got out, and Kennedy, with four of his men, jumped 
into her and rowed for the beach. This they reached 
without difficulty, by means of a narrow lane of open 
water which was opportunely discovered. On ascend- 
ing the cliffs of Cape Seppings, Kennedy found, to his 
joy, that the harbor of Port Leopold was quite free fi'om 
ice, and, if the ship could maintain her position for a few 
hours longer, he had no doubt of being able to effect an 
entrance. On descending to the beach, however, he 
found, to his consternation, that the passage by which 
they had entered was blocked up. The boat had not 
been fastened to the beach, but to a large piece of ice, 
which, with the whole body of the pack, was drifting 
down the inlet, carrying boat, ship, and men, along 
with it. To make matters worse, night was coming on, 



320 DISASTROUS SEPARATION. 

and nothing could be seen or heard around but huge 
masses of ice grinding, tossing, and rearing furiously 
on every side. To return to the ship under these cir- 
cumstances was out of the question ; so they made for 
the shore as fast as possible, dragging the boat along 
with them. On reaching it, they pulled the boat up and 
turned it over so as to form a kind of shelter from the 
night-air, and then prepared to pass the night under it, 
although little sleep was anticipated ; for, besides the 
anxiety occasioned by their strange position, their 
clothes were almost covered with ice, and they had no 
blankets or coverings of any kind. From his former 
experience in Arctic scenes, Kennedy knew the danger 
of falling asleep under such circumstances ; and, notwith- 
standing the strong desire that he and his men felt to 
indulge in repose, he only allowed them to rest for an 
hour at a time, obliging them during the remainder of 
the night to keep in active motion. 

With the dawn of the following morning the shivering 
party scrambled to the top of the highest cliff of Cape 
Seppings, but not a vestige of the vessel was to be seen I 
The consternation of the poor men, who were thus cast 
away on this bleak shore, may be imagined. Without 
provisions, scantily clad, no vessel, and an approaching 
hyperborean winter, their condition seemed forlorn 
indeed. One fortunate circumstance, however, cheered 
them not a little ; and this was the fact that, two years 
before. Sir James Ross had left a deposit of provisions 
at Whaler Point, on the other side of the harbor. 
Should this be found in good condition, there was evei-y 
reason to hope that they might manage to pass the 
winter in at least some degree of comfort. Thither, 
therefore, Kennedy and his four men now directed their 
steps. A short walk brought them to the spot, where, 
to their great joy, they found the provisions just as they 



DISASTROUS SEPAEATION. 321 

had been left, and quite good, with the exception of a 
cask of tallow, a case of chocolate, and a barrel of bis- 
cuit, which had been destroyed^ and their contents de- 
molished, by the bears and foxes. A house erected by 
Sir James Koss was also found in pretty good condition, 
being only a little damaged in the roof. Near to this 
there was a flag-staff, to which a cylinder was attached, 
containing a notice of the deposit of provisions, and of 
the future intentions of the party by whom they had been 
left. 

"It was now," says Kennedy, "the 10th of Septem- 
ber. Winter was evidently fast setting in, and, from the 
distance the ship had been carried during that disas- 
trous night, — whether out to sea or down the inlet we 
could not conjecture, — there was no hope of our being 
able to rejoin her, at least during the present season. 
There remained, therefore, no alternative but to make up 
our minds to pass the winter, if necessary, where we 
were. The first object to be attended to was the erect- 
ing of some sort of shelter against the daily increasing 
inclemency of the weather ; and for this purpose the 
launch, left by Sir James Ross, was selected. Her main- 
mast was laid on supports at the bow and stern, about 
nine feet in height, and by spreading two of her sails 
over this a very tolerable roof was obtained. A stove 
was set up in the body of the boat, with the pipes run- 
ning through the roof ; and we were soon sitting by a 
comfortable fire, which, after our long exposure to the 
wet and cold, we stood very much in need of." 

Kennedy now arranged his plans for the future. To 
undertake a long winter journey over the country on 
foot had been his original intention ; but, under the 
present circumstances, this was impossible. lie there- 
fore determined first to send out travelling parties, as 
soon as the state of the ice should permit, to institute 



322 DISASTROUS SEPARATION. 

a strict search for the ship in every direction in which 
it was likely that she could have been carried ; and, 
secondly, in the event cf being unsuccessful in this, it 
was determined to make a journey early in spring to 
Cape Walker, to search in that direction for traces of 
Captain Franklin and his crews ; and so accomplish at 
least part of the object for which this expedition had 
been fitted out. 

There were diiBculties in the way, however. Shoes 
were wanted. Without shoes nothing could be done 
at all ; so it behoved them to exert their ingenuity. 
There was nothing in the dep6t of provisions that could 
be turned to this use ; but, fortunately, a good deal of 
the canvas covering of the old house was left, and out 
of this several pairs of shoes were made. They answered 
pretty well, although, indeed, they lasted not much 
longer than a few days ; so two of the party were set 
to work to devote their whole time to the making of a 
supply of canvas shoes, which should last them durmg 
the whole winter. 

In contriving and constructing such clothing and 
implements as were absolutely necessary, and in pre- 
paring for their intended journeys, they now spent 
much of their time. The Sabbaths were always days 
of rest, and devoted to the worship of Grod, whose ten- 
der care had thus provided them with all the necessaries, 
and not a few of the comforts, of life. 

On the 17th of October, while they were engaged in 
the usual routine of daily duty, a shot was heard to 
reverberate among the cliffs of Cape Seppings. So 
unwonted a sound caused them to rush tumultuously 
from their occupations, when they found, with emotions 
of inexpressible thankfulness and joy, that it proceeded 
from a party of seven of the Prince Albert's men, headed 
by Bellot, who had dragged the jolly-boat all the way 



RELIEF AND REUNION. 323 

from Batty Bay, in the hope of finding and succoring 
their long-lost comrades. 

"I cannot refrain," writes Kennedy, "from record- 
ing here my warmest thanks to Mr. Bellot, not only for 
this, but two other attempts which he had made to 
communicate to us the intelligence of the Prince 
Albert's position, and to bring us a supply of clothing. 
He had set out with two men to come by land to Port 
Leopold, the third day after getting into Batty Bay ; 
but, after three days' march, over the wild and rugged 
hills, wading through deep snow, and walking against 
continual drift, they were obliged to return to the ship, 
after much suffering from cold and wet. He next made 
a gallant attempt along shore by means of dogs and 
sledges ; but, getting on weak ice, fell through, and had 
again to return, with the loss of the sledge and part of 
its contents. The third (the present) attempt was more 
successful. The little boat, as already stated, had been 
dragged all the way, in case of any occasion arising for 
its use where the ice had not formed. They found the 
ice, however, formed all the way to this point, and in 
many places so rough that they had often to drag their 
boats over points of land." 

From those who had thus opportunely arrived to 
succor them they learned that the Prince Albert was 
securely moored in Batty Bay ; and, as there was noth- 
ing now to prevent their setting out to rejoin the vessel, 
preparations were commenced immediately. The activ- 
ity and reactionary flow of spirits among the men was 
very high, at thus meeting with their long-lost com- 
rades. Five weeks had elapsed since their disastrous 
separation ; and that evening a truly joyous party 
assembled under the covering of the old launch, and 
caused her timbers to quake with the sound of rough 
old sea-songs, and tough yarns, while they quaffed brim- 



324 RETURN TO THE SHIP. 

ming bowls of hot, strong chocolate to the success of 
their expedition. 

On Wednesday, the 22d of October, their prepara- 
tions being completed, a paper was deposited in the 
cylinder, containing an account of their proceedings, 
and they commenced their journey to Batty Bay. 

A strong sledge had been made, on which the boat 
was placed ; then all their goods and provisions, etc., 
had been securely stowed away in the latter, and hauled 
down to the ice on Leopold Harbor, which stretched out 
a smooth and level plain before them. The mast was 
then erected, the sails set, and, the whole party jumping 
in, away they went over the bay before a spanking 
breeze, at a rate that was quite marvellous. But, just 
as they got about half-way across the bay, the sledge 
broke down, leaving them to repair damages for the 
remainder of the day. Night overtook them ere they 
could gain the land ; and, as it was not desirable to sleep 
on the frozen sea, they were obliged to make their way 
on in the dark, which was rendered, if possible, still 
more palpable by a heavy fall of snow. After much 
stumbling into crevices and cracks, frequent wanderings 
about they knew not where, and occasional dashings of 
the shins upon sharp pieces of projecting ice, a small 
bit of solid land was found in the shape of a flat lime- 
stone rock, surrounded by large masses of stranded ice. 
Here they erected a tent, and with some coals which 
had been brought from Whaler Point boiled a large 
kettle of tea, and enjoyed themselves exceedingly after 
the fatiguing and protracted march of the day. 

But they experienced some embarrassment in dispos- 
ing themselves to rest. The tent was small, and the 
party numbered thirteen. Six sat down on one side, 
and six on the other, by which they managed to have 
about three feet of space for stretching their legs. 



SNOW HOUSES. 325 

Bellot — whose good-humored aptitude to accommodate 
himself to all varieties of circumstances was alwaj^s 
conspicuous — undertook to squeeze in under the twelve 
pairs of legs, a small spage at one end being left clear 
for his head. But the arrangement was not propitious 
to sleep ; and it was resolved to ''make a night of it.'' 
They had a candle, but no candlestick ; so each man 
held the candle for a quarter of an hour, and then 
passed it to his neighbor. Songs were sung, and there 
was some hilarious merriment. But the candle went 
out, and then there was a renewal of the abortive 
attempts to sleep. These were accompanied with nods, 
groans, and sighs, — especially from poor Bellot, on 
whom the weight of twenty-four heavy legs began to 
tell with the efiect of a hydraulic press. At length the 
gray dawn warned them to rise and resume their 
journey. 

Their discomforts had been such that they determined 
in future to adopt the Esquimaux plan of building a 
snow hut each night, in which to sleep. Kennedy's 
description of these primitive dwellings is interesting : 
"The process of constructing a snow-house goes on 
something in this way, varied, of course, by circum- 
stances of time, place, and materials. First, a number 
of square blocks are cut out of any hard-drifted bank of 
snow you can meet with, adapted for the purpose ; 
which, when cut, have precisely the appearance of 
blocks of salt sold in the donkey-carts in the streets of 
London. The dimensions we generally selected were 
two feet in length by fourteen inches in height, and nine 
inches in breadth. A layer of these blocks is laid on 
the ground nearly in the form of a square ; and then 
another layer on this, cut so as to incline slightly 
inwards, and the corner blocks laid diagonally over 
those underneath, so as to cut off the angles. Other 
28 



326 PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING. 

layers follow in the same way, until you have gradually 
a dome-shaped structure rising before you, out of which 
you have only to cut a small hole for a door, to find 
yourself within a very light, comfortable-looking bee- 
hive on a large scale, in which you can bid defiance to 
wind and weather. Any chinks between the blocks are 
filled up with loose snow with the hand from outside ; 
as these are best detected from within, a man is usually 
sent in to drive a thin rod through the spot where he 
discovers a chink, which is immediately plastered over 
by some one from without, till the whole house is as 
air-tight as an egg.'' 

In these snowy dwellings they afterwards passed 
many nights in considerable comf(jrt, and on the pres- 
ent occasion certainly found them a great improvement 
on the small tent. In a few days they reached the 
ship, where a hearty welcome from their comrades 
greeted them. 

Preparations were now vigorously begun for passing 
the next eight months of the winter of 1851-2 in the 
ice, and for getting ready for the land journeys which 
it was intended to make during that season. Portions 
of the stores were removed from the vessel's hold to 
the shore, where snow-houses were built to receive them. 
A wash-house, a carpenter's shop, a forge, and a powder- 
magazine, were also built of the same material. The 
decks of the Prince Albert were covered with a housing, 
and an embankment of snow as high as the gunwale 
built around her. 

In all the excursions of the adventurers, Bellot, the 
young Frenchman, seems to have been ever foremost. He 
headed travelling parties, so soon as the ice permitted, 
to make deposits of provisions, etc., for the grand trav- 
elling expeditions in prospect ; and, besides lending 
very efficient assistance in all departments on board, 



WINTER JOURNEYS. 327 

made daily pilgrimages to a hill in the neighborhood^ 
where he occasionally succeeded in obtaining a meridian 
observation of the sun, and always succeeded in getting 
his fingers frozen in the operation. 

Kennedy, being almost the only man on board who 
had ever seen a snow-shoe or a dog-sledge before, was 
constantly engaged in constructing these Indispensable 
implements for winter travelling, and in teaching his 
crew the use of them. Thus occupied, the time passed 
cheerfully by. The nights were long and dark, and grew 
rapidly longer and darker. The cold winds howled over 
them from off the chilly regions around the pole, bear- 
ing in their course blinding clouds of snow, circling and 
screaming madly round the solitary ship, and whistling 
among the rigging as if impatient for its destruction, 
and then roaring away over the frozen sea, to spend 
their fury at last on the black waves of Hudson's Bay. 
Sometimes the sun shone brightly out in a clear, cloud- 
less sky, glittering on the icy particles which floated in 
the still, cold atmosphere, and blazing on the tops of the 
neighboring hills, whose white outlines were clearly and 
sharply defined against the blue heavens ; and, as if Na- 
ture desired to make some compensation for the length- 
ened period of darkness to which she doomed the land, 
one, and sometimes two mock-suns, or, as the sailors 
sometimes call them, "sun-dogs," shone in the firma- 
ment, vieing in splendor with the glorious orb of day 
himself 

About the 5th of January, 1852, all was ready for the 
commencement of the long-talked-of winter journeys, 
and the morning of that day was ushered in with the 
clattering of snow-shoes and sledges, the cracking of 
whips, the shouts of men, and the howling and yelping 
of dogs. Although all the men of the Prince Albert 
were out upon the ice, only five of them were appointed 



328 WINTER JOURNEYS. 

to undertake the first exploratory journey. These were 
Kennedy, Bellot, and three of the hardiest among the 
crew. " The first object of the journey/' says Kennedy, 
"was, of course, to ascertain whether Fury Beach had 
been a retreating point to any of Sir John Franklin's 
party since it was visited by Lieut. Robinson, of the En- 
terprise, in 1849. A secondary object, should our ex- 
pectations in this respect not be realized, was to form a 
first depot of provisions here, with the view of carrying 
out a more extended search as soon as circumstances 
would permit. It was desirable at the same time to 
ascertain the state of the roads, by which, of course, I 
mean the yet untrodden surface of the snow or ice, in 
the direction in which we meant to go, before com- 
mencing any transport, on a large scale, between the 
ship and Fury Beach ; and it was thought advisable, 
therefore, to go comparatively light. A small supply 
of pemmican was all we took with us in addition to our 
travelling requirements, consisting of a tent and poles, 
blanketing and provisions for a week, some guns and 
ammunition, fuel, and a cooking apparatus, in all 
weighing from two hundred to two hundred and fifty 
pounds." 

Troubles and difficulties, not, however, of a very seri- 
ous kind, assailed them at the very commencement. 
The "roads " were so bad as to be almost impassable, 
owing to the ice being detached from the shore, and so 
leaving as their only pathway the beach at the base of 
stupendous cliff's. Huge fragments of ice and large 
bowlder stones met them at every turn, often rendering 
it a work of extreme difficulty for the united efforts of 
dogs and men to drag the sledge along. Occasionally 
they met with what is termed a " pressure," or a set 
of ice upon the shore, which blocked up the path alto- 
gether, and compelled them to have recourse to axes 



BELLOT. 329 

to cut their way through ; and sometimes they came to 
banks of hard-drifted snow sloping down the face of the 
cliffs, and leaving only an inclined plane to drag the 
sledge over. On one occasion Bellot was pitched head 
foremost into one of these huge snow-drifts, leaving 
only six inches of his protruding legs to tell of his 
whereabouts. 

The first night, not having time to erect a snow-hut, 
owing to the lateness of the hour, they slept in the tent, 
but found it very small and uncomfortable ; so that, on 
the following evening, they stopped for the night, after 
eight hours' walking, and built their snow-hut at the 
foot of a high precipice, with a perpendicular mass of 
stranded ice at the bottom, which served for a gable. 
The ice, which was undergoing a ^'pressure,'' groaned, 
ground, and crashed around them all night, and finally 
left them in the morning with a pile at least thirty feet 
high, within a few yards of the encampment. 

On the 8th, being within a short distance of Fury 
Beach, it was resolved to leave the sledge and two of 
the men, while Kennedy and Bellot, with one man, 
should proceed forward unencumbered. Accordingly 
they started, and got over the ground much more rap- 
idly than before. That night they reached Fury Beach, 
and stood upon the spot around which, for several days 
past, their anxious hopes had been circling ; but all 
was still and desolate as the grave. " Every object dis- 
tinguished by the moonlight in the distance,^' says Ken- 
nedy, ''became animated, to our imaginations, into the 
forms of our long-absent countrymen ; for, had they 
been imprisoned anywhere in the Arctic seas, within a 
reasonable distance of F'ury Beach, here, we felt as- 
sured, some of them, at least, would have been now. 
But, alas for these fond hopes ! '' 

It was with sad feelings and slow steps that Ken- 
28* 



830 WINTER OCCUPATIONS. 

nedy and Bellot entered the ruined walls of " Somerset 
House," and prej^ared to take a few hours' repose. A 
fire was lighted in the stove, which had heated the end 
of the building occupied by Sir John Eoss's crew during 
the dreary winter of 1832-33. Around this they sat 
and supped ; and, after reposing, set out, about eleven 
p. M., on their return to the encampment where the 
sledge had been left. They reached it about two a. m. 
of the following morning. From this point they retraced 
their steps again to the ship, where they arrived on the 
10th, at five o'clock in the afternoon, without having 
encountered anything worth recording. 

During the winter, travelling parties were occasion- 
ally sent out for the purpose of placing provisions en 
cache, for the benefit of those who should afterwards 
undertake a journey along shore to the southward, and 
across the country in various directions. These parties 
were often arrested by violent gales and snow-storms, 
which seem to have prevailed very much during the 
whole winter ; so much so, indeed, that the veteran 
Hepburn observed, ''that he had known but one gale 
since entering Batty Bay, and that was the gale which 
began when they came, and ended when they went 
away ! '' 

They had a good library on board, and spent much 
of their time in reading. The doctor kept school, and 
the crew would often sit in groups, listening to his dis- 
courses, or employed in making flannel socks, canvas 
jackets, and other useful articles. 

Spring now drew on apace. This was indicated by 
the increasing power of the sun and length of the day, 
though the country retained its wintry aspect for months 
afterwards. About the middle of February, 1852, every- 
thing being in a proper state of advancement for the 
commencement of the '' grand journey," preparations 



KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 331 

for an immediate start were made ; and, on the 25th of 
that month, equipped with snow-shoes, sledges, and 
dogs, they left the vessel. 

The party which now set out were a detachment of 
five men, under the command of Kennedy. These were 
to be followed in a few days by another detachment, 
under Bellot, who was to be waited for at Fury Beach, 
whence the whole, amounting to fourteen men, were to 
start upon hitherto untrodden ground. They were es- 
corted as far as the south point of Batty Bay by part 
of the ship's company, who were to remain behind. 
At this point they separated with many kind farewells 
and three hearty cheers, after which they were soon lost 
to each other in the mist. 

During the first part of the journey, the equinoctial 
gales blew with great violence. They were frequently 
detained for whole days at a time in their encampment 
by these fierce winds, from whose bitter fury they were, 
however, well protected by the snow-houses which they 
built. " The gale," says Kennedy, " of Saturday (28th 
February) continuing during three days, we were of 
necessity compelled to remain in camp. During a short 
interval, about the 2d of March, the weather appearing to 
get more moderate, we were enabled to return for what 
cargo had been left behind during our former trip. It 
was taken onward as far as we dared, and we returned 
to the camp against a wind so keen, that no face escaped 
being frost-bitten — the strong wind, in this instance, 
beiog the cause rather than the degree of temperature, 
for this was comparatively moderate. On the morning 
of the 3d a lull of an hour or so enticed us to bundle 
up and lash our sleigh. No sooner had we done this, 
and proceeded a short distance, than the gale came on 
with redoubled fury, in consequence of which we had 
to hasten back to our snow retreat, and were glad 



332 KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 

enough to have been still so near a shelter when caught 
by it, as we had much difficulty in keeping on our feet, 
from the violence of the whirling eddies that came 
sweeping along an exposed headland near us. Such 
was the force of the wind, that column after column of 
whirling spray was raised by it out of a continuous lane 
of water, more than a mile broad, which the present 
gale had opened out along the coast, at the distance of 
only a few yards from our present encampment. As 
these successive columns were lifted out of the water, 
they were borne onward with a speed scarcely less 
rapid than the ' wings of the wind ' itself. Whilst de- 
tained here, we narrowly escaped being buried by an 
infant avalanche ; a hardened mass of snow of several 
tons' weight having been disengaged from the summit 
of the cliff above us," 

So severe did this part of the road prove, that the 
sledges, moccasins, and snow-shoes, were severely dam- 
aged. On the whole party being collected at Fury 
Beach, it was found necessary to send back to the ship 
for additional supplies. They were much indebted here 
to the old stores of the Fury, which were found to be 
in excellent preservation, although they had lain for 
thirty years exposed to the weather on the shores of 
these icy seas. 

The journey on which they had now entered would 
occupy, it was supposed, about three months, during 
which time they hoped to survey upwards of a thousand 
miles. It was found, upon calculation, that six men 
could not carry a suffi9ient quantity of provisions to 
sustain them for so long a period ; so the plan was 
adopted of taking fourteen men as far as Brentford 
Bay, from which point eight of the travellers were to 
return to the ship, while the^ remaining six would pro- 



KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 333 

ceed onwards with as much as they could possibly drag 
or carry of the necessaries of life. 

Among their provisions and equipments, procured 
from the old deposit at Fury Beach, were seven hun- 
dred and fifty pounds of pemmican, one small sack of 
flour, five gallons of spirits of wine, a hundred and 
twent}^ pounds of coal, four bags of biscuits, and various 
knives, saws, astronomical instruments, &c. 

Of these old stores of the Fury, Kennedy says, he found 
the provisions ''not only in the best preservation, but 
much superior in quality, after thirty years of exposure 
to the weather, to some of our own stores, and those 
supplied to the other Arctic expeditions. This high 
state of preservation I cannot help attributing in some 
measure to the strength and thickness of the tins, in 
which the preserved meats, vegetables, and soups, had 
been placed. The flour had all caked in solid lumps, 
which had to be reground and passed through a sieve 
before it was fit for the cook's hands. In other respects 
it was fresh and sweet as ever, and supplied us with a 
stock of excellent biscuit.'' 

These articles, with the tackling and sledges, made 
altogether a total dead weight of about two thousand 
tons ; the whole being lashed down, to the smallest pos- 
sible compass, on four flat-bottomed Indian sledges, two 
of which were drawn by the five dogs, assisted by two 
of the men, the other two being dragged by the rest of 
the party. 

It was a fine, clear, mild day when they started, and 
they found the travelling very good at first, the beach 
being flat, and the ice sufficiently smooth to admit of 
proceeding with facility. Fortune, however, seldom 
favors Arctic travellers long. They soon found their 
bright sky overcast, and the mild breeze changed into 
a cold, bitter, frosty gale. Under these circumstances 



334 KENNEDY'S JOUENEY. 

they travelled from day to day, enduring it as stoically 
as possible, and making up to some extent for their dis- 
comfort while travelling by enjoying themselves beneath 
their snow-burrows during the few hours allotted to re- 
pose. The frost-biting of their faces, however, became 
at last so intolerable, that they fell upon the expedient 
of protecting the parts most vulnerable by means of 
sundry curious and original kinds of coverings. "For 
the eyes,'' says Kennedy, ''we had goggles of glass, of 
wire-gauze, of crape, or of plain wood with a slit in the 
centre, in the manner of the Esquimaux. For the face, 
some had cloth-masks, with neat little crevices for the 
mouth, nose, and eyes ; others were muffled up in the 
ordinary chin-cloth, and, for that most tioublesome of 
the facial members, the nose, a strong party, with 
our always original carpenter at their head, had 
gutta-percha noses, lined with delicate soft flannel." 
These contrivances, though admirable in theory, proved 
complete failures in practice. They were ultimately 
discarded, with the exception of the chin-cloths and 
goggles. 

The daily routine of operations was as follows : They 
rose at six, but did not dress — having slept in their 
clothes, that operation was unnecessary ; then they 
breakfasted ; after which came the bundling up and 
lashing of the sledges, and the harnessing of the dogs — 
the latter operation always being accomplished amidst 
considerable uproar. Then came the start ; Kennedy 
leading the way, Bellot following, and the party in a 
string bringing up the rear. So on they went, over hill 
and dale and along shore, from morn till night, stopping 
every hour for five minutes to rest the men and breathe 
the dogs, and halting, when opportunity offered, to find 
their latitude and longitude. The construction of a 
snow-hut, and the consumption of the evening meal, 



KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 335 

concluded the labors of the day, which were seldom 
over before nine or ten at night. 

On the 6th of April they arrived at Brentford Bay, 
and the fatigue-party began their retrograde journey to 
the ship. 

At this point Kennedy discovered a strait running 
westward, which was found to separate North Somerset 
from Boothia Felix, and was named Bellot Strait, in 
honor of the gallant young Frenchman, who had secured 
the affectionate regard not only of the leader of the 
party, but also of all the men. Thence Kennedy crossed 
over Victoria Strait to Prince of Wales Land, naming 
the most prominent headlands, bays, and islands. Nu- 
merous tracks of deer, wolves, bears, and musk-oxen, 
were seen ; but none of the animals themselves, except 
one bear, which came incautiously close to the snow- 
hut, and was chased away by the dogs. 

On the 17th April the thermometer indicated -j-22 ; 
" a temperature,'^ says Kennedy, " which, to our sensa- 
tions, was absolutely oppressive. One of our dogs, 
through over-exertion, combined with the unusual heat, 
fainted in his traces, and lay gasping for breath for a 
quarter of an hour ; but, after recovering, went on as 
merrily as ever. These faithful creatures were perfect 
treasures to us throughout the journey. They were all 
suffering, like ourselves, from snow-blindness, but did 
not in the least relax their exertions on this account. 
The Esquimaux dog is, in fact, the camel of these north- 
ern deserts ; the faithful attendant of man, and the 
sharer of his labors and privations. '^ 

During a great portion of the journey the men were 
much annoyed by snow-blindness, caused by the fierce 
glare of the sun upon the snow ; and this was rendered 
all the more unbearable by the sharp winds which pre- 
vailed so much, and dashed the drift into their eyes. 



836 KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 

The country over which they travelled was generally 
very flat, rendering it a matter of no small difficulty to 
keep their westerly course, the compasses being of lit- 
tle use in such close proximity to the magnetic pole. 
Their great hope in travelling westward was, that they 
should meet with a sea which would conduct them 
northward to Cape Walker, and so enable them to 
ascertain whether or not there was any promising west- 
ern channel or strait through which Franklin might have 
penetrated. After thirteen days' marching, however, 
they reached the hundredth degree of west longitude 
without meeting with the wished-for ocean ; so it was 
resolved to turn their steps northward. 

''Being now satisfied,'' says Kennedy, ''that Sir 
James Eoss had, in his land journey along the western 
shore of North Somerset, in 1849,' mistaken the very 
low and level land over which we had been travelling 
for a western sea, I felt no longer justified in continuing 
a western course. Whatever passage might exist to 
the south-west of Cape* Walker, I felt assured must now 
be on our north. I determined, therefore, from this time 
forward, to direct our course northward, until we should 
fall upon some channel which we knew must exist not 
far from us, in this direction, by which Franklin might 
have passed to the south-west." 

The weather still continued boisterous and change- 
able. The channel of which they were in search was 
nowhere to be found. Scurvy, too, began to show itself 
among the men ; so it was resolved to turn eastward 
again, and proceed towards the channel laid down to 
the east of Cape Bunny, which they resolved to follow 
up to Cape Walker. 

During the march they met several herds of deer, and 
succeeded in shooting a few bVace of ptarmigan. As 
they had no means of cooking them, however, they 



KENNEDY'S JOUKNEY. 337 

adopted the practice, common among Indians, oi freez- 
ing them, and, while in this state, eating them raw ; 
and we are assured that a "frozen ptarmigan, after a 
hard day's march, is by no means an unwelcome addi- 
tion to an Arctic traveller's bill of fare ! " 

At last they arrived at Cape Walker. Its bold and 
conspicuous headland first met their gaze on the 4th 
of May ; but here, as at Fury Beach, they were doomed 
to disappointment. Not a sign of Franklin's expedition 
having visited the spot was to be met with. Bellot 
carefully followed the windings of the rough ice outside 
the beach, in order to have a commanding view of the 
clifi's, while Kennedy searched along shore ; but all with- 
out success. Ignorant that he had been preceded by 
Captain Austin's parties, Kennedy mistook the large 
cairn they had erected for a part of the cliff, and actu- 
ally walked over a smaller one deeply covered with snow, 
without for a moment suspecting that the spot had been 
previously visited. If the large cairns, formed by the 
parties of Ommaney and Osborne the previous spring, 
could thus be overlooked, might not signals erected by 
Franklin have been equally undistinguishable amid the 
deep snow which enveloped this bleak and rugged 
coast ? 

Their stock of provisions now getting very low, Ken- 
nedy's party were obliged to go on short allowance ; 
and, to make it last longer, they fed the dogs, from this 
time forward, on ''old leather shoes, and fag-ends of 
buffalo robes" — on which, we are told, "they thrived 
wonderfully." It is added that one old snarling brute, 
who had received the name of Boatswain from the men 
on account of his ill-nature, " never seemed thoroughly 
to enjoy his meals till put upon a course of old shoes." 

From this time the men grew worse and worse with 
scurvy ; but were much revived by lighting upon a 
29 



338 KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 

small dep6t of provisions, which had been left near 
Cape McClintock by Sir James Ross, in 1849. This 
enabled them to start again with vigor for Whaler 
Point, which they reached on the 15th, and at which 
place they remained until the 2'7th, making free use of 
the lime-juice, cranberries, etc., which were deposited 
there. After being sufficiently restored, they started 
on their return to the ship, which they finally reached 
on the 30th of May, having been absent ninety-seven 
days, during which time six men with five dogs had 
travelled about eleven hundred miles, dragging, for 
most of the way, two thousand pounds' weight, sleep- 
ing in snow-houses, encamping at times on frozen seas, 
and rarely having fire when they halted to recruit. 

The travellers found that all had gone on well at 
Batty Bay, in their absence. Nothing now remained 
but to get the ship clear of ice and return home. But 
there was little as yet in the appearance of ice or land 
to indicate that June had returned, except the falling in 
of some of the snow-houses. Gradually, however, the 
fierce glare of the sun began to make itself felt ; and, 
on the 6th of August, after some sawing and blasting, 
the imprisoned vessel was liberated. On the 19th Ken- 
nedy reached Beechey Island, where he found the depot- 
ship North Star, attached to SirE. Belcher's expedition, 
engaged in sawing into winter quarters. On the tth of 
October, 1853, the Prince Albert arrived in England. 

In concluding his narrative, Kennedy remarks of the 
young Frenchman who was associated with him, and 
whose subsequent fate, in connection with the history 
of Arctic discovery, is interesting : " To Mr. Bellot, 
my constant companion, not only do I owe the most 
valuable assistance from his scientific attainments, but 
his amiable qualities have cemented a deep personal 
regard, which can only end with my life." 



RAE'S LAND JOURNEY. 339 

Meanwhile researches from the North American coast 
were renewed by Mr. Eae. He left Fort Confidence, on 
the Coppermine, April 25th, 1851, with four men and 
three sledges drawn by dogs. Reaching the coast May 
1st, he found the ice favorable for travel. On the 5th 
he landed at Douglas Island, and on the tth gained the 
opposite shore. Traversing it to the east, until he 
reached 110° W. longitude, where his survey met that 
of Dease and Simpson, he retraced his steps, and ad- 
vanced west until he turned Cape Baring, past latitude 
10°, and longitude 117° W. From some elevated 
ground in this neighborhood high land could be seen 
to the north, but none was visible to the west. He got 
back to his provision station on the Kendall River upon 
the 10th of June, having travelled eight hundred and 
twenty-four geographical, or nine hundred and forty- 
two English miles, in forty days. In this lengthened 
journey his arrangements were much the same as during 
his survey of Committee Bay. He slept in snow houses, 
and, as he advanced, buried provisions to serve for his 
return. In the months of July and August he explored 
the coast of Victoria Land, east and north, in boats ; 
marking every indentation, from the 101st to the llTth 
degree of latitude — an achievement, under the circum- 
stances, of which any officer might be proud. On this 
newly-discovered coast he met many parties of Esqui- 
maux ; but his inquiries as to the grand subject were 
all fruitless. The American coast had now been dili- 
gently examined, from the entrance of Behring's Strait 
to the head of Hudson's Bay ; and the conclusion was, 
that Franklin never reached so low a latitude. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SIR EDWARD BELCHER'S EXPEDITION. ARRIVAL IN BAFFIN'S BAY. 

THE AMERICAN WHALER. ARRIVAL ATBEECHEY ISLAND. SEARCH 

COMMENCED. INGLEFIELD'S VOYAGE. THREE MORE EXPEDITIONS. 

INGLEFIELD's RETURN. NEWS FROM m'clURE. PARRY AND FRANK- 
LIN. — M'cLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. ADVENTURES WITH ESQUIMAUX. — 

PERILOUS NAVIGATION. DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 

PERSONAL PERILS. ABUNDANCE OP GAME. — WINTER QUARTERS. 

SLEDGE-PARTIES. STILL FROZEN UP. PLAN OF ESCAPE. 

The unexpected and somewhat premature return of 
the squadrons under command of Captains Austin and 
Penny, in the autumn of 1851, increased the universal 
desire that the mysterious fate of Sir John Franklin's 
expedition should be thoroughly investigated. The 
interesting details brought back of the discovery of 
Franklin's winter quarters on Beechey Island, in 1845- 
46, revived the hopes that had begun to fade rapidly 
away. The opinion of those engaged in the sledging 
operations of 1851, that the missing ships had pro- 
ceeded up Wellington Channel, and entered the open 
sea discovered by Captain Penny, and believed by him 
to be the great polar basin, — and the supposition that 
the lost ones might still be imprisoned, and alive, in its 
gloomy solitude of ice, — all tended to influence the 
public mind in favor of a continuance of the search. 

Accordingly, in the spring of 1852, another expedi- 
tion — the most extensive that had yet sailed for the 
polar regions — was fitted out, and placed under the 
command of Sir Edward Belcher. This squadron con- 
sisted of five vessels — the Assistance, the Resolute, 



SIR EDWARD BELCHER'S EXPEDITION. 341 

the North Star, and two steamers, the Pioneer and 
Intrepid. These set sail in April for Baffin's Bay, pur- 
posing to make Beechey Island their head-quarters, 
whence the various vessels were to set out, separately 
or together, as might be thought best, to search the 
neighboring coasts. The Assistance and Pioneer were 
directed to sail up Wellington Channel, under the com- 
mand of Sir Edward Belcher. The other two were to 
proceed, under Captain Kellett, to Melville Island, there 
to deposit provisions for the use of Captain Collinson 
and Commander M'Clure, should these gentlemen be 
successful in making the passage from Behring's Strait, 
for which they had set sail, it will be remembered, in 
January, 1850. The North Star was to remain at 
Beechey Island, as a depot store-ship. 

The squadron sailed from England on the 28th April, 
1852. On the 6th of July it was making its way through 
the ice in Baffin's Bay, in company with a fleet of 
whalers, which were there beset. Caught at the head 
of a bight in the ice, with the xissistance and the Pio- 
neer, the Kesolute was, for the emergency, docked 
there ; and, by the ice closing behind her, was for a 
while detained. Meanwhile the rest of the fleet, 
whalers and discovery ships, passed on by a little lane 
of water, the American whaler McLellan leading. 

The North Star, of the English squadron, followed the 
McLellan. A long train stretched out behind, — whalers 
and government ships, as they happened to fall into line, 
— a long three quarters of a mile. It was lovely weather, 
and, though the long lane closed up so that they 
could neither go back nor forward, nobody appre- 
hended injury, till it was announced, on the morning of 
the tth, that the McLellan was nipped in the ice, and 
her crew were deserting her. Sir Edward Belcher sent 
his carpenters to examine her, put a few charges of 
29* 



342 SIR EDWARD BELCHER'S EXPEDITION. 

powder in the ice to relieve the pressure upon her, 
and by the end of the day it was agreed that her injuries 
could be repaired, and her crew went on board again. 
But the next morning there was a fresh wind, the Mc- 
Lellan was caught again, and the water poured into her, 
a steady stream. She drifted about, unmanageable, now 
into one ship, now into another ; and the English whale- 
men began to pour on board, to help themselves to such 
plunder as they chose. At the captain^s request, Sir 
Edward Belcher, to put an end to this, sent sentries on 
boai-d ; and he also sent working parties, to clear her as 
fa,r as might be, and keep account of her stores. In a 
day or two more she sank to the water's edge, and a 
charge or two of powder put her out of the way of 
liarming the rest of the fleet. After such a week spent 
together, it will easily be understood that the New 
London whalemen did not feel strangers on board one 
of Sir Edward's vessels, when, as we shall see, they 
found her '' ready for occupation," three years and more 
afterwards. 

On the 10th August the squadron reached its ap- 
pointed head-quarters at Beechey Island. The season 
was remarkably open ; Wellington Channel and Bar- 
row's Straits were equally clear of ice. On the 14th Sir 
E. Belcher, with the Assistance and Pioneer, stood up the 
channel ; and the following day Capt. Kellett, with the 
Resolute and Intrepid, sailed in open water for Melville 
Island. In this position we leave the expedition for the 
present, and proceed to give an account of the next that 
entered the field. 

In consequence of the report, set afloat by Sir John 
Ross, on the authority of his Esquimaux interpreter, 
that Franklin and his crews had been murdered, by the 
natives, at Wolstenholme Sound, Lady Franklin refitted 
the Isabel screw-steamer, and sent her out, under Com- 



INGLEFIELD'S EXPEDITION. 343 

mander Inglefield, to ascertain the truth of the story. 
Inglefield sailed from England on the 6th July, 1852 ; 
coasted the northern shores of Baffin's Bay ; advanced 
much further up Whale Sound than any previous navi- 
gator, — finding, as he proceeded, an immense expanse of 
open water ; and pushed through Smith's Sound as far 
as latitude 78° 28' 21" north, without discovering any 
opposing land. Instead of the narrow strait which 
Smith's Sound has usually been thought. Captain Ingle- 
field found it about thirty-six miles across, expanding 
considerably as it extended northward. The sea was 
open — that is, free from islands, except one looming in 
the extreme distance, to which the discoverer gave the 
name of Louis Napoleon.'^ From appearances, the 
leader of the expedition inferred that he had reached a 
'more genial climate than that of Baffin's Bay ; instead 
of the eternal snow which he had left behind, the rocks 
appeared of their natural color. There was ice, indeed, 
and in pretty large quantities ; some of the mariners 
conceived they saw an ice-blink to the north ; but the 
captain thought he could steam through. A gale, how- 
ever, arose, which, increasing in violence, fairly blew 
them back — perhaps providentially, for they were not 
well fitted to winter in those high latitudes, with the 
probability of being held fast for an indefinite time. 

" It was deemed, by every one on board, madness to 
attempt a landing ; and thus," says Inglefield, " I was 
forced to relinquish those desires ere we bore up, which, 

* " An island similar in position to that designated by Capt. Inglefield 
as Louis Napoleon does not exist. The land sighted in that direction 
may have been the top of a high mountain on the north side of Franklin 
Pierce Bay, though this supposition requires us to assume an error in the 
bearing ; for, as given in the chart, no land could be within the range 
of sight. In deference to Capt. Inglefield, I have continued for this prom- 
ontory the name which he had impressed upon it as an island." — Kane's 
Narrative of the Second Grinnell Expedition, vol. i., page 323. 



344 INGLEFIELD'S EXPEDITION. 

with the heavy gale that now blew, was the most pru- 
dent step I could take. The rest of the 2'7th and the 
following day were spent in reaching, under snug sail, 
on either tack, whilst the pitiless northerly gale drove 
the sleet and snow into our faces, and rendered it pain- 
ful work to watch for the icebergs, that we were contin- 
ually passing. On this account, I could not heave the 
ship to, as the difficulty of discerning objects rendered 
it imperative that she should be kept continually under 
full command of the helm. The temperature, 25°, and 
the continual freezing of the spray, as it broke over the 
vessel, combined with the slippery state of the decks 
from the sleet that fell and the ice which formed from 
the salt water, made all working of ropes and sails not 
only disagreeable, but almost impracticable ; so that I 
was not sorry when the wind moderated. 

" By four a. m., of the 29th, it fell almost to a calm ; 
but a heavy swell, the thick fog and mist remaining, 
precluded our seeing any distance before us ; and thus 
we imperceptibly drew too near the land-pack off the 
Avestern shore, so that, a little after Mr. Abernethy had- 
come on deck, in the morning watch, I was called up, 
as he said that the ship was drifting rapidly into the 
ice. Soon on deck, I found that there was no question 
on that score ; for even now the loose pieces were all 
round us, and the swell was rapidly lifting the ship fur- 
ther into the pack, whilst the roar of waters, surging 
on the vast floe-pieces, gave us no very pleasant idea 
of what would be our fate if we were fairly entrapped 
in this frightful chaos. The whale-boat was lowered, 
and a feeble effort made to get her head off shore ; but 
still in we went, plunging and surging amongst the 
crushing masses. 

" While I was anxiously watching the screw, upon 
which all our hopes were now centred, I ordered the 



INGLEFIELD'S EXPEDITION. 345 

boiler, which had been under repair, and was partly 
disconnected, to be rapidly secured, the fires to be 
lighted, and to get up the steam ; in the mean time the 
tackles were got up for hoisting out our long-boat, and 
every preparation was made for the worst. Each man 
on board knew he was working for his life, and each 
toiled with his utmost might ; ice-anchors were laid out, 
and hawsers got upon either bow and quarter, to keep 
the ship from driving further in ; but two hours must 
elapse before we could expect the use of the engine. 
Eager were the inquiries when will the steam be up ? 
and wood and blubber were heaped in the furnace to get 
up the greatest heat we could command. 

''At last the engineer reported all was ready; and 
then, warping the ship's head round to seaward, we 
screwed ahead with great caution ; and at last found 
ourselves, through God's providence and mercy, relieved 
from our difficulties. It was a time of the deepest sus- 
pense to me ; the lives of my men and the success of our 
expedition depended entirely on the safety of the screw ; 
and thus I watched, with intense anxiety, the pieces of 
ice, as we drifted slowly past them ; and, passing the 
word to the engineer, ' Ease her,' ' Stop her,' till the 
huge masses dropped into the wake, we succeeded, with 
much difficulty, in saving the screw from any serious 
damage, though the edges of the fan were burnished 
bright from abrasion against the ice." 

Besides penetrating one hundred and forty miles 
further than previous navigators, and finding an open 
sea stretching northwards, from Baffin's Bay, to at 
least the latitude of 80°, Captain Inglefield discovered 
a strait, in about *7YJ°, which he named Murchisoii 
Strait, and which he supposed to form a northern bound- 
ary to Greenland. In addition to the shores of the 
polar basin, he more accurately surveyed the eastern 



M6 THREE MORE EXPEDITIONS. 

side of Baffin's Bay, from Carey's Islands to Cape Alex- 
ander, often remaining on deck the four-and-twenty 
hours round — for night there was none. He entered 
Jones's Sound, but was stopped by the ice, and came to 
the conclusion that there is no available channel from 
the sound into the polar basin, though there is possibly 
some narrow frozen strait. Inglefield then made for 
Beechey Island, where he arrived on the Tth September, 
and where he met the North Star, the depot ship of the 
Admiralty expedition. Thence, after a short delay, he 
shaped his course homeward. In spite of the advancing 
season, he examined a considerable part of the western 
coast of Baffin's Bay ; and, though sorely beset on more 
than one occasion, managed to get through, and reached 
Stromness on the 4th of November — exactly four 
months from the date of "his departure from Woolwich. 

It is hardly necessary to add that Inglefield's investi- 
gations established the utter falsity of the story told 
by Sir John Eoss's interpreter. 

In the beginning of the year 1853 three expeditions 
were fitted out, partly to continue the search for Frank- 
lin, and partly to reinforce the vessels already in the 
field of action. The Rattlesnake, under Commander 
Trollope, and the Isabel screw-steamer — again refitted 
by Lady Franklin, and placed under the command of 
Mr. Kennedy — sailed for Behring's Strait, in order to 
carry supplies to Captains Collinson and M'Clure. Mr. 
Rae was again despatched to the Isthmus of Boothia, to 
make a further examination of the coast in that quarter ; 
and Commander Inglefield was sent to Barrow's Straits, 
with the Phoenix and the Lady Franklin, to reinforce 
the squadron under Sir E. Belcher. Mr. Grinnell, of 
New York, aided by Mr. Peabody, of London, also fitted 
out an expedition, under the command of Dr. E. K. 
Kane, and sent it to explore the passages leading out 



TIDINGS OF M'CLURE. 347 

of Baffin's Bay into the unknown ocean around the 
pole. 

In the autumn of 1853 the deep interest of the British 
nation was aroused by the return of Captain Inglefield, 
in the Phoenix, with despatches conveying the intelli- 
gence that the north-west passage had at length been 
discovered by Captain M'Clure, of the Investigator, who 
had passed through Behring's Strait, and sailed to 
within a few miles of the most westerly discoveries 
made from the eastern side of America, at which point 
he had been frozen up for more than two years, and 
where his ship still lay, unable to advance or to retreat. 
No vessel had yet made the entire passage ; but, from 
the two extreme points of discovery, on either side, 
parties from the Investigator had walked over the frozen 
ocean ; and one gentleman — namely, Lieut. Cresswell, 
the bearer of despatches from Captain M'Clure — had 
sailed from England, entered Behring's Strait, and 
returned again to England by the Atlantic Ocean, hav- 
ing thus passed through the long-sought north-west 
passage. 

This interesting intelligence, coupled with the an- 
nouncement of M'Clure's safety, concerning which much 
anxiety had begun to be felt, was joyfully received ; 
and Lieut. Cresswell, the bearer of the good news, was 
treated with marked attention in England. At a public 
dinner, given him in his native town of Lynn, Sir Edward 
Parry, who was present, made some remarks on the 
probable fate of Sir John Franklin, which will be read 
with interest in this connection : 

" While we are rejoicing over the return of our friend, 
and the probable return of his shipmates, we cannot but 
turn to that which is not a matter of rejoicing, but rather 
a matter of sorrow and regret — that there has not been 
found a single token of our dear long-lost Franklin and 



348 SIR EDWARD PARRY'S OPINIONS. 

his companions. Not only has that been the case in the 
expedition in which Lieut. Gurney Cresswell has been 
engaged, but I understand it to be the case with Sir 
Edward Belcher, who has gone up the Wellington Inlet, 
where I certainly thought traces must be found, because 
at Beechey Island we knew Franklin passed the first 
winter when he went out. There we found three graves 
of his men, — and that is, up to the present moment, 
the only token whatever we have received of him. I 
do consider it a most mysterious thing, and I have 
thought of it as much as anybody. I can form but a 
single idea of the probable fate of Franklin. I do not 
agree with our friend Gurney Cresswell about the prob- 
ability of both ships having gone down, and nothing 
been seen of them, because, although it is true that 
nothing might have been seen of the ships themselves, 
I do not believe the crews would have all perished 
at one moment. I think there is that stuff and 
stamina in one hundred and thirty Englishmen, that, 
somehow or other, they would have maintained them- 
selves as well as a parcel of Esquimaux would. They 
would have found the Esquimaux, and there would have 
been something like a trace of them, if they had been on 
earth. The only thing which I can suggest is this : 
Wellington Strait was discovered by myself, on the 
expedition I spoke of. It is a large opening from Lan- 
caster Sound. 

''When I was going up westward from Melville 
Island, we saw Wellington Strait perfectly free from 
ice, and so I marked it on my chart. It was not my 
business to go north as long as I could get west, and, 
therefore, we ran past and did not examine it ; but it 
has always been a favorite idea of those who imagined 
that the north-west passage was to be easily made by 
going north. That, we know, was the favorite idea of 



SIR EDWARD PARRY'S OPINIONS. 349 

BVaiiklin ; and we know he did intend, if he could not 
get westward, to go up Wellington Channel. We have 
it from his own lips. My belief is still that, after the 
first winter, he did go up that channel ; and that, having 
steam-power (which I had not in my time), it is possible 
he may have gone up in a favorable season ; for you 
cannot imagine anything more different than a favorable 
and an unfavorable season in those regions. You can- 
not imagine the changes that take place in the ice there. 
I have been myself sometimes beset for two or three 
days together by the ice, in such a way that from the 
mast-head I could not see sufficient water to float that 
bottle in ; and in twenty-four hours there was not a bit 
of ice to be seen — nobody could tell why — I cannot 
tell why ; and you might have sailed about as you may 
in your own river, as far as ice is concerned. 

" Therefore, in a favorable season he may have gone 
up that inlet, and may, by the power of steam and 
favorable circumstances, have got so far to the north- 
east that, in an ordinary season, he could not get back 
again. And those who knew Franklin know this — 
that he would push on, year after year, so long as his 
provisions lasted. Nothing could stop him. He was 
not the man to look back, if he believed the thing was 
still possible. He may have got beyond the reach of 
our searching parties ; for Sir Edward Belcher has not 
been able to get far up, and we have not been able to 
get the investigation completed. In speaking of Frank- 
lin, every one will feel sorrow for his probable fate. 
My dear friend Franklin was sixty years old when he 
left this country ; and I shall never forget the zeal, the 
almost youthful enthusiasm, with which that man entered 
upon that expedition. Lord Haddington, who was then 
first lord of the Admiralty, sent for me, and said, ' I 
see, by looking at the navy-list, that Franklin is sixty 
80 



350 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

years old : do you think we ought to let him go? ' I 
said, ' He is a fitter man to go than any I know ; and if 
you don't let him go, the man will die of disappoint- 
ment.' He did go, and has been gone eight years ; and, 
therefore, I leave to yourselves to consider what is the 
probability of the life of that excellent, and valuable man. 
In the whole course of my experience I have never 
known a man like Franklin. I do not say it because he 
is dead — upon the principle de mortuis nil nisi honum ; 
but I never knew a man in whom different qualities 
were so remarkably combined. In my dear friend 
Franklin, with all the tenderness of heart of a simple 
child, there was all the greatness and magnanimity of a 
hero.'^ 

To this touching tribute, from the h'ps of a fellow- 
navigator, we append the following beautiful lines, 
quoted by a writer in one of the British quarterly re- 
views : 

" Where is he ? — where ? Silence and darkness dwell 
About him ; as a soul cut off from men : 
Shall we behold him yet a citizen 
Of mortal life ? Will he return to tell 
(Prisoner from Winter's very citadel 
Broken forth) what he before has told, again 
How to the hearts and hands of resolute men, 
God aiding, nothing is impossible ? 

Alas ! the enclosure of the stony wave 
Is strong, and dark the depths of polar night ; 

Yet One there is omnipotent to save, 

And this we know, if comfort still we crave. 
Into that dark he took with him a light — 

The lamp that can illuminate the grave." 

It will be remembered that Captains CoUinson and 
M'Clure sailed for Behring's Strait in 1850, through 
which, in connection with the Plover and Herald, they 
endeavored to pass, but without success, except in the 
case of the Investigator (Captain M'Clure), which was 



M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 351 

seen on the 4th August, 1850, bearing gallantly into 
the heart of the "polar pack,'' The Enterprise (Cap- 
tain Collinson), finding it impossible to follow, sailed to 
Hong-Kong, and wintered there ; but in May, 1851, 
returned to Behring's Strait, and succeeded in enter- 
ing the ice. The Plover remained at Port Clarence, as 
a reserve for these two vessels to fall back upon, while 
the Herald returned to . England. From that date 
nothing was heard of these two vessels, until the arrival 
of the Phoenix, with the despatches of Captain M'Clure, 
bringing assurance of the safety of the Investigator. 

On parting company with the Herald in Behring's 
Strait, in July, 1850, Captain M'Clure stood to the 
north-north-west, with a fresh breeze, with the intention 
of making the ice, which was accomplished on the 2d 
of August. During several days the Investigator battled 
with the foe — now boring through densely-packed 
masses, and then winding among the lanes which 
opened here and there as the currents or winds acted 
upon the pack. Occasionally they struck with consid- 
erable violence, but succeeded, at length, in rounding 
Point Barrow, and discovered clear water on the after- 
noon of the tth — so far ahead, however, that it could 
only be seen from the " crow's nest." 

Hundreds of walruses were seen huddled together on 
the ice, like sheep in a fold. M'Clure seems to have 
been rather favorably impressed in regard to these ani- 
mals, on account of the affection shown by the mothers 
for their young. He would not allow them to be shot. 

The most remarkable feature of the walrus consists in 
two teeth, or tusks, which project in a curved line from 
the upper jaw, and are nearly two feet in length. They 
are of beautiful white bone, almost equal to ivory, and 
much used in the fabrication of artificial teeth. The 
front face, when seen at a little distance, bears a striking 



352 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

resemblance to the human ; and its appearance is sus- 
pected to have sometimes given rise to the fanciful 
reports of mermaids in the northern seas. The walrus 
is monogamous, and the mother brings forth her young 
only one at a birth, either on the shore or on the ice. 
Like all the cetaceous tribes, to which the walrus is 
allied, he is disposed to be peaceful and harmless. 
Parry describes the supine security with which a num- 
ber of them lay on the ice, piled over each other, with- 
out discomposing themselves at the approach of a party 
armed for their destruction. In Spitzbergen, however, 
where they have been long the object of chase to thC/ 
Russian hunters, they are reported to keep very strict 
watch ; it being said that one stands guard while 
the others sleep. Even when sensible of danger, they 
are not forward to face it, but rather shun the attack by 
rushing beneath the ice, while those behind, with their 
tusks, urge forward their companions. Yet, when they 
are compelled to combat, they give battle with the 
utmost coolness and courage ; they then stand firm by 
each other, rush in one united body against the boats 
(as in the attack on the Trent's boat, page 71), and, strik- 
ing with their tusks, endeavor to overset them. When 
repulsed, too, they repeatedly rally, and in the end 
yield only to the fire-arms of Europeans, or to the strat- 
agems of the Esquimaux. Maternal tenderness, and 
the determination with which the female defends her 
3'oung, are equally conspicuous in them as in the whale 
species. The walrus must live near open water. 

" The wind," writes McClure, '' almost immediately 
failing, the boats were all manned, and towing com- 
menced amid songs and cheers, which continued, with 
unabated good-humor, for six hours. Being in perfectly 
clear water in Smith's Bay, a light air springing up, we 
worked to the eastward. At two a. m. of the 8th, being 



M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 353 

off Point Drew, I sent Mr. Court (second master) on shore 
to erect a cairn, and bury a notice of our having passed. 
Upon landing, we were met by three natives, who at 
first were very timid; but, upon exchanging signs of 
friendship, which consisted of raising the arms three 
times over the head, they approached the boat, and, 
after the pleasant salutation of rubbing noses, became 
very communicative ; when, by the assistance of our 
valuable interpreter, Mr. Miertsching, we found the 
tribe consisted of ten tents (this being the only approach 
to their numbers he could obtain) ; that they had arrived 
only three days previously, and that they hold commu- 
nication with a party inland, who trade with the Russian 
Fur Company.'^ They had observed us the evening 
before, and had thought our masts were trees in motion, 
and wondered at the sight. 

The natives seen here had spent their lives between 
the Coppermine River and Point Barrow ; and, from the 
circumstances of their not having met with any of 
Franklin's party, M'Clure concludes that the latter 
could not have been lost on these shores. " The coast,'' 
says he, " is inhabited throughout, and the natives are, 
to all appearance, a kind and merry race ; and, when 
we gave them presents, through the medium of the 
interpreter, we told them that we were looking for our 
lost brothers, and if they saw any white men in distress 
they were to be very kind ; to which they assented by 
saying that they would, and would give them ' plenty 
of deer's flesh.' " 

So narrow was the passage of open water between 
the ice and the shore, along which the Investigator had 
to pass, that she had great difficulty sometimes in tack- 
ing, — requiring to do so, in some places, nearly every 
ten minutes ; and, on one occasion, they actually took 
the ground while " in stays." Fortunately the bottom 
30* 



354 M'CLDRE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

was soft clay, and they hove off again immediately. 
Gradually, however, the lane widened, the reaches 
became longer and longer, and all apprehension of being 
forced on shore was soon over. On the 10th of August, 
1850, they passed the mouth of the Colville River, the 
influence of which stream was found to extend twelve 
or fourteen miles out to sea ; the surface, at that dis- 
tance from shore, being of a dirty mud-color, and 
scarcely salt. 

At this part of the coast they again fell in with 
natives, who came off in two haidars, to the number of 
thirty. A very animated and curious scene ensued. A 
vigorous barter was immediately commenced, after the 
curiosity of the wondering Esquimaux with regard to 
the ship was satisfied. Their imitative propensity was 
father oddly brought into play during the traffic. See- 
ing the sailors cut the tobacco into pieces, to give in 
exchange for salmon-trout, they at once began to do 
the same with the fish ! but were soon checked in this, 
and were obliged to succumb to the white men. 

During the afternoon, while standing along a low flat 
island, a pair of seal-skin inexpressibles were observed 
fluttering from the top of a pole, held up by a number 
of natives, who took this method of intimating their 
desire to receive a visit. In obedience to the signal, 
the boats were lowered, and pulled in to the shore. 
The Esquimaux appeared to regret their temerity, how- 
ever ; for, on the near approach of the sailors, the inex- 
pressibles were dropped, and the whole tribe fled. As 
usual, however, they regained courage on observing the 
friendly gesticulations of the white men, and soon 
approached them, tossing up their arms, and making 
other signs of friendship ; ending, at last, by rubbing 
noses with, and affectionately embracing, the gallant 
tars. 



M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 355 

These poor people had never seen white men before : 
they had no article of European manufacture about their 
persons, and spent their lives in hunting walruses and 
seals on these low islands during the summer months, 
retiring to their warm residences on the mainland during 
winter. After holding some communication with them, 
through the medium of the interpreter, Captain M'Clure 
left them, having jfirst made them a few presents, and, 
among other things, a boat's ensign, in commemoration 
of the first man-of-war whose flag has floated over these 
sterile regions. The magnificence of this latter gift 
quite astounded them, and caused them to rush tumult- 
uously to their canoes to carry it ofi" to their women, 
who were encamped on another island close at hand. 

Some of these primitive people were apparently 
addicted to stealing. While M'Clure was placing some 
presents in the right hand of a chief, in token of good 
will, he felt the fellow's left hand in his pocket. The 
Esquimaux, however, laughed heartily when they were 
caught in their thefts ; and so the Euglishmen thought 
best to do the same, and not allow peccadilloes to mar 
the harmony of their intercourse. 

Coasting along, as they found opportunity, the voy- 
agers advanced slowly — sometimes with much and some- 
times with little water — till the morning of the 13th, 
when the ice closed round, and hemmed them in com- 
pletely. In this dilemma, the boats were sent to sound, 
and shortly returned, reporting a practicable passage in 
three fathoms water. Unfortunately, they hit on a spot 
with only two and a half fathoms, and so were soon fast 
aground. As it turned out, however, the bottom was 
sandy, so that no damage was done to the ship ; but 
one of the whale-boats, which contained part of the 
cargo taken out to lighten the vessel, upset, and eleven 
casks of salt beef were lost. This was a serious loss at 



356 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

such a time. After five hours' hard work, they got 
once more into deep water. 

In this way they continued to coast along the margin 
of the pack for about four or five hundred miles, when 
it became somewhat more open. It was now resolved 
to shape a course to the north-north-west for Banks's 
Land. In doing this, however, they were frequently 
obliged to alter, and often to retrace their course, owing 
to the deceptive nature of the lanes of water, and the 
perplexing fogs that constantly prevailed, obliging them 
to proceed chiefly by soundings. 

On the 21st of August they passed the mouth of the 
Mackenzie Eiver, and made the Pelly Islands. Soon 
after, they reached Warren Point, where natives were 
seen on the shore ; and as M'Clure wished to forward 
despatches by them, if possible, to the Hudson's Bay 
Company's posts on the Mackenzie, the boats were 
ordered out. M'Clure believed the natives to have 
been in connection with these posts, and expected a 
friendly reception from them. " Great, therefore," says 
he, " was my surprise, upon approaching the beach, to 
find, instead of being greeted by the usual friendly signs, 
that two savages, with gesticulations the most menacing, 
having bended bows, with arrows on their strings, and 
one with a large knife, which he brandished most signifi- 
cantly, waved us ofi". Taking no heed of these hostile 
demonstrations, we pulled in ; they retreated, yelling 
furiously. Upon our reaching the beach, we made the 
same signs of friendship which we had used with the 
Esquimaux further west, but without any effect, until 
joined by the interpreter, who Was in full native costume. 
This gave them confidence, and, upon his explaining our 
friendly intentions, they approached ; but when within 
about thirty yards, remarking some muskets which the 
boat's crew had, their fury revived. To pacify them, 



M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 357 

they were laid upon the ground, where they became the 
object of a cautious examination. Still unsatisfied, thej^ 
beckoned to take them to the boat. Seeing that noth- 
ing short of this would allow of any communication, I 
sent them away, when they approached, and permitted 
us to examine their bows and arrows." 

It was found that these Esquimaux had no communica- 
tion with the Mackenzie, in consequence of their being at 
war with the neighboring tribes, and having had several 
skirmishes with the Indians of that quarter. This may 
in some measure account for their fierce dispositions, 
so very different from those previously met with. A 
flat brass button was observed suspended from the ear 
of one of the chiefs of this tribe ; and, on being ques- 
tioned as to where he got it, he replied that "it had 
been taken from a white man who had been killed by 
one of his tribe. The white man belonged to a party 
which had landed at Point Warren, and there built a 
house ; nobody knew how they came, as they had no 
boat ; but they went inland. The man killed had 
strayed from the party, and he (the chief) and his son 
had buried him upon a hill at a little distance.'' 

No satisfactory or intelligible reply could be got as 
to when this event occurred. M'Clure remained at 
this place for a short time to investigate the matter, 
but only found two huts, which, from the rottenness of 
the wood of which they were built, appeared to be of a 
very old- date indeed. The grave of the white man was 
not found. 

All along this coast they met with parties of natives, 
who almost invariably showed a hostile front on their 
first appearance, and as invariably became amicable 
after a little coquetting. In these interviews they had 
frequently curious scenes, especially in the distribution 
of presents to some natives near Cape Bathiirst, who 



358 M'CLURE'S EXPLOEATIONS. 

could scarcely be restrained when the gaudy gifts were 
presented to their longing eyes. Mr. Miertsching, the 
interpreter, was always of the greatest use on these 
occasions, and won so much the esteem of one old 
chief, that, in the fulness of his heart, he prayed him to 
stay with the tribe forever ; and, by way of inducement 
to do so, presented him with his daughter, a pretty girl 
of about fifteen, to be his wife, assuring him, at the 
same time, that a tent, and all the etceteras of an 
Esquimaux establishment, should be given to him along 
with her ! They were frequently invited to partake of 
native hospitality in the shape of roasted whale and 
venison, besides salmon, blubber, and other Arctic 
delicacies. 

Great numbers of whales were seen about this time ; 
also a polar bear on a fragment of ice. On the 5th of 
September, the hopes of the navigators were suddenly 
raised, and as speedily cast down again. '' The weather,'' 
says M'Clure, " which had been squally, accompanied 
by a thick fog during the early part of the day, cleared 
towards noon, when a large volume of smoke was 
observed about twelve miles south-west. ... As 
divers opinions were in circulation respecting its proba- 
ble cause, and the ice-mate having positively reported 
that from the crow's nest he could distinguish several 
persons moving about, dressed in white shirts, and 
observed some white tents in the hollow of the cliff, I 
certainly had every reason to imagine they were a party 
of Europeans in distress ; for I was convinced that no 
travellers would remain for so long a period as we had 
remarked the smoke, for their pleasure ; therefore, to 
satisfy myself, equally as others, I determined to send a 
boat on shore, as it was now calm. The first whale- 
boat, under Lieut. Cresswell, with Dr. Armstrong and 
Mr. Miertsching, was despatched to examine into the 



M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 359 

cause, who, on their return, reported that the smoke 
emanated from fifteen small mounds of volcanic appear- 
ance, occupying a space of about fifty yards, the place 
strongly impregnated with sulphur, the lower mounds 
being about thirty feet above the sea-level, the high- 
est about fifty feet. The land in its vicinity was blue 
clay, much intersected with ravines and deep water- 
courses, varying in elevation from three hundred to five 
hundred feet ; the mark of a reindeer was traced to a 
small pond of water immediately above the mounds. 
Notice of our having landed was left, which would not 
long remain, as the cliff is evidently rapidly crumbling 
away. Thus the mystery of the white shirts and tents 
was most satisfactorily explained.'' 

At four A. M, of the 6th they were off the small 
islands, near Cape Parry, bearing north-east-by-north, 
with a fine westerly breeze. The same day, high land 
was observed on the port-bow, on the western shore of 
which the main body of the ice rested. This was the 
first sight obtained of tei'ra incognita. Hitherto they 
had been sailing along a shore which had in former 
years been surveyed, on foot and in boats, by Franklin, 
Back, Dease, Simpson, and others ; although, indeed, 
theirs was the first ship that had sailed in these waters ; 
but the land which now appeared to them on the left 
bow was quite new. Accordingly, they hove to, and 
landed and took possession in the name of her majesty, 
calling it " Baring's Island," in honor of the first lord 
of the Admiralty. The south cape of this land, a fine, 
bold headland, rising almost perpendicularly to the 
height of about a thousand feet, was named " Lord Nel- 
son's Head." The latitude was found to be 71° 6' north, 
longitude 123° 0' west. A note of their progress being 
deposited here, they returned to the ship and sailed 
along the eastern coast, as being freer from ice than 



360 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

that on the west. It was afterwards found that the land 
taken possession of, instead of being an island, was the 
southernmost point of the shore which had been named 
" Banks's Land," by Parry, in 1820. The name Baring 
Island was accordingly changed to Baring Land. 

'' We observed," writes M'Clure, ''numerous traces 
of reindeer, hare, and wild-fowl. Moss, and divers 
species of wild-flowers, were also found in great abun- 
dance ; many specimens of them, equally as of other 
subjects of interest to the naturalist, were selected, with 
much care, by Dr. Armstrong. From an elevation 
obtained of about five hundred feet, we had a fine view 
towards the interior, which was well clothed with moss, 
giving a verdant appearance to the ranges of hills that 
rose gradually to between two thousand and three 
thousand feet, intersected with ravines, which must con- 
vey a copious supply of water to a large lake situated 
in the centre of a wide plain, about fifteen miles distant. 
The sight to seaward was favorable in the extreme ; 
open water, with a very small quantity of ice, for the 
distance of full forty miles toward the east, insured 
good progress in that direction." 

At noon, September 9th, 1850, observations placed 
the Investigator only sixty miles from Barrow's Strait. 
"I cannot," writes M'Clure, "describe my anxious 
feelings. Can it be possible that this water communi- 
cates with Barrow's Strait, and shall prove to be the 
long-sought north-west passage ? Can it be that so 
humble a creature as I am will be permitted to perform 
what has baffled the talented and wise for hundreds of 
years ? But all praise be ascribed unto Him who hath 
conducted us so far in safety. His ways are not our 
ways : nor the means that He uses to accomplish his 
ends within our comprehension. The wisdom of the 
world is foolishness with Him." Land was observed to 



M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 361 

the eastward, to which M'Clure gave the name of 
Prince Albert's Land. Several remarkable peaks ap- 
peared to be of volcanic origin. 

On the 16th the Investigator was making slow 
progress toward Barrow's Strait ; and on the lYth of 
September, 1850, they reached their most advanced 
position, in latitude '73° 10' north, and longitude 111° 
10' west, about thirty miles from the waters of that series 
of straits, which, under the names of Melville, Barrow, 
and Lancaster, communicate with Baffin's Bay. At 
this tantalizing distance the ship ceased to drift, and 
the ice appeared to have reached a point beyond which 
some unknown cause would not allow it to proceed. 
The heavy pack of Melville Strait, lying across the head 
of the channel, was supposed to be the reason of the 
ice of Prince of Wales Strait ceasing to move on to 
the north-east ; and the impassable nature of the pack 
in the same direction, in the following year, confirmed 
this hypothesis. 

On the 9th of September M'Clure tells us he had de- 
bated in his mind whether to abandon all hope of reach- 
ing Barrow's Strait that year, and retrace his course 
southward in search of a wintering place, or to hold on, 
so far as he might, and run the risk of wintering in the 
pack. " I decided," he says, ** on the latter of these 
two courses ; " and the consideration which influenced 
him in this difficult choice was, '' that to relinquish the 
ground obtained through so much labor and anxiety, for 
the remote chance of finding safe winter quarters, would 
be injudicious, thoroughly impressed as I was with the 
absolute importance of retaining every mile to insure 
any favorable results while navigating these seas." 
Besides this, it was desirable to hold as advanced a 
position as possible, in order that the spring sledge- 
31 



362 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

parties in 1851 might be at once set to work upon new 
and nnsearched coast-lines. 

The smallest pools of water now became rapidly cov- 
ered with ice ; the eider-duck, the hardiest of Arctic birds, 
was last seen on the 23d of September. On the 2'7th, 
the temperature being then at zero, preparations were 
begun for housing over the ship. These preparations 
were made under circumstances that might well shake 
the nerves of a strong man. As the ice surged, the 
ship was thrown violently from side to side, now lifted 
out of water, now plunged into a hole. " The crushing, 
creaking, and straining,'^ says Captain M'Clure, in his 
log, "is beyond description ; the officer of the watch, 
when speaking to me, is obliged to put his mouth close 
to my ear, on account of the deafening noise. ^^ 

The officers had just time to congratulate themselves 
upon the escape from past dangers, and to express 
gratitude at having lost only thirty miles of latitude by 
the drifting of the pack, when a change of wind set it 
all again in motion. The 28th was spent in breathless 
anxiety, as, helpless in their icy trammels, they swept 
northward again toward the cliffs of Princess Royal 
Island. 

These cliffs rose perpendicularly from the sea at the 
part against which the ship appeared to be setting, and, 
as the crew eyed them for a hope of safety, if the good 
craft should be crushed against their face, they could 
see no ledge upon which even a goat could have estab- 
lished a footing, and an elevation of four hundred feet 
precluded a chance of scaling them. To launch the boats 
over the moving pack was their sole chance, — and that 
a poor one, rolling and upheaving, as it was, under the 
influence of wind, tide, and pressure. 

*' It looks a bad job, this time," inquiringly remarked 
one of the sailors, as he assisted another in coiling down 



DISCOVERT OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 363 

neatly a frozen hawser. " Yes ! " was the rejoinder, as 
the other shaded his eyes from the driving snow, and 
cast a glance at the dark cliff looming through the 
storm, ''the old craft will double up like an old basket 
when she gets alongside of them rocks ! '^ 

The Investigator's hour was not yet come, however ; 
and, when within five hundred yards of the rocks, the 
ice coach-ivheeled her along them, and finally swept her 
past the islands upon the eastern side. 

No water was in sight from the mast-head ; yet 
onwards they drifted slowly, and on the 30th became 
again stationary, in latitude 12° 50' N., and longitude 
117° 55' W., very nearly as far north as they had sailed 
a fortnight before. 

" On the 8th of October,'^ says M'Clure, " our per- 
plexities terminated with a nip that lifted the vessel a 
foot, and heeled her four degrees to port, in conse- 
quence of a large tongue getting beneath her, in which 
position we quietly remained. '^ Here the Investigator 
passed the winter of 1850-51. 

From the 10th to the 21st of October, preparations 
were made to despatch a sledge-party to the northward 
to reach Barrow's Strait, and get assurance of the fact 
of the discovery of a north-west passage. A remarka- 
ble rise of temperature to 24° plus of Fahrenheit, from 
2° minus, with the wind blowing fresh from north-east, 
would seem to indicate that the winter of this region is 
modified by the warm air from the open water of Bar- 
row's Strait. This sudden change was far from pleas- 
ant to the crew ; and the old hands warned the novices 
against ''being fools enough to pull their clothes off on 
account of such a bit of sunshine ; for, perhaps, in an 
hour's time Zero would be about again." 

On the 21st October, 1850, M'Clure started for Bar- 
row's Strait, with a sledge manned with six men ; but it 



86-1: M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

broke down before they had proceeded far, and they had 
to send to the ship for another. It did not reach them 
till the next day. After some difficulty in crossing 
ridges of broken ice, they reached vast fields of smooth 
ice of the present season's formation ; and here a new 
obstacle awaited them. The autumnal snow had accu- 
mulated upon the surface of these young ice-fields, and, 
weighing them down, caused the sea-water to flow 
through sufficiently to render the under part of the 
snow almost as tenacious as clay. The fatigue of haul- 
ing two hundred pounds apiece over such a road was 
excessive. Unfortunately, no water could be had, and 
the crew suffered much from thirst ; for every handful 
of snow which they thrust into their parched mouths 
augmented rather than assuaged their sufferings, as it 
contained more or less of the salts of the sea-water. 

On the 24th a cape was seen at what appeared a dis- 
tance of twelve miles, and every man now dragged with 
a will, in the hope of reaching that night the end of his 
journey ; but, after seven hours' labor, the cape still 
retained its original position, and they seemed not a 
mile nearer to it. M'Clure then saw that he had been 
much deceived in its apparent distance, owing to the 
clearness of the atmosphere, and that thirty miles was 
a nearer estimate than twelve of the probable length 
of their march. After a night's rest, and another hard 
day's work, they were still two miles off" the cape, when 
night closed in, obliging them to halt and encamp. 
Though disappointed in not sighting Barrow's Strait on 
the 25th, they were all much cheered by the multiply- 
ing proofs around them of its close proximity. Away to 
the north-east they already saw that wonderful oceanic 
ice described by Sir Edward Parry in his voyage to 
Melville Island, in 1819. The latitude was now 1B° 25' N. 

The morning of the 26th October, 1850, was fine and 



DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 365 

cloudless. It was with no ordinary feelings of joy and 
gratitude that M'Clure and his party started before sun- 
rise to obtain from the adjacent hill a view of that sea 
which connected their discoveries with those of Sir 
Edward Parry. Ascending a hill six hundred feet above 
the sea-level; they patiently awaited the increase of 
light to reveal the long-souglit-for north-west passage from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 

As the sun rose, the panorama slowly unveiled itself. 
First the land called after Prince Albert showed out on 
an easterly bearing ; and, from a point since named 
after Sir Eobert Peel, it evidently turned away to the 
east, and formed the northern entrance of the channel 
upon that side. 

The coast of Banks's Land terminated about twelve 
miles further on than where the party stood ; and thence 
it turned away to the north-west, forming the northern 
coast of that land, the loom of which had been so cor- 
rectly reported by Parry more than thirty years before. 
Away to the north, and across the entrance of Prince 
of Wales Strait, lay the frozen waters of Barrow's, or, 
as it is now called, Melville Strait ; and, raised as they 
were at an altitude of six hundred feet above its level, 
the 'eye-sight embraced a distance which precluded the 
possibility of any land lying in that direction between 
them and Melville Island. 

The north-west passage was discovered ! All doubt 
as to the water communication between the two great 
oceans was removed ; and it now alone remained for 
M'Clure, his officers and men, to perfect the work by 
traversing the few thousand miles of known ground 
between them and their homes. 

The position of Mount Observation, from which the 
important discovery had been made, was ascertained to 
be in latitude 13° 30' 39" N., longitude 114° 39' W. 
31* 



866 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

The travellers encamped that night on Cape Lord John 
Kussell, and cheered lustily as they reached the shores 
of Barrow's Strait. A mimic bonfire, of a broken 
sledge and dwarf willow, was lighted by the seamen 
in celebration of the event. 

The question of a north-west passage was now placed 
beyond all doubt. From the point in Barrow's Strait 
upon which they were looking — a point opposite to 
Cape Hay, in Melville Island — Parry had sailed into 
Baffin's Bay and home. The existence, therefore, of a 
water communication round the north coast of America 
was finally demonstrated. They had not found any 
trace of Franklin ; but they had done the next best 
thing, and enough for M'Clure's fame. 

The rapid fall of temperature now warned M'Clure 
that he should return without delay to the ship. From 
Point Lord John Russell, the coast of Banks's Land 
was seen to trend away to the westward, and increase 
in boldness of outline and altitude. Much vegetation, 
for this latitude, was observed, and numerous traces of 
animals, such as the deer, hare, and ptarmigan, as well 
as of the fox and wolf; but no animal was seen. A 
large cairn was constructed, a due record of the visit 
of the party placed therein, and then, in the teeth of a 
south-east gale, they commenced their return to the 
Investigator. 

M'Clure came near perishing in trying to get back. 
On the 30th of October, at two p. m., having seen the 
Princess Royal Isles, and knowing the position of the 
ship from them, he left his sledge, with the intention of 
pushing for the ship, and having a warm meal ready for 
his men on their arrival. When still six miles from the 
ship the night overtook him ; and with it came a dense 
mist, accompanied with snow-drift, which rolled down 
the strait, and obscured every object. Unable to see 



DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 367 

his road, but endeavoring to preserve a course by the 
wind, M'Clure continued to hasten on, until repeated 
and heavy falls amongst the broken ice warned him to 
desist, or incur the additional peril of broken limbs. 

'' I now," he says, '' climbed on a mass of squeezed-up 
ice, in the hope of seeing my party, should they pass 
near, or of attracting the attention of some one on 
board the vessel by firing my fowling-piece. Unfor- 
tunately, I had no other ammunition than what it was 
loaded with ; for I had fancied, when I left the sledge, 
that the two charges in the gun would be all I should 
be likely to require. After waiting for an hour patiently, 
I was rejoiced to see through the mist the glare of a blue 
light, evidently burnt in the direction in which I had left 
the sledge. I immediately fired to denote my position ; 
but my fire was unobserved, and, both barrels being dis- 
charged, I was unable to repeat the signal. My only 
hope now rested upon the ship's answering ; but noth- 
ing was to be seen ; and, although I once more saw, at 
a greater distance, the glare of another blue light from 
the sledge, there seemed no probability of my having 
any other shelter for the night than what the floe 
afforded. Two hours elapsed ; I endeavored to see the 
face of my pocket-compass by the light of a solitary 
lucifer match, which happened to be in my pocket ; but 
in this hope I was cruelly disappointed, for it fizzed 
and went out, leaving me in total darkness. 

" It was now half-past eight ; there were eleven hours 
of night before me, a temperature 15° below zero, bears 
prowling about, and I with an unloaded gun in my 
hands. The sledge-party might, however, reach the 
ship, and, finding I had not arrived, search would be 
made, and help be sent ; so I walked to and fro upon 
my hummock until, I suppose, it must have been eleven 
o'clock, when that hope fled likewise. Descending 



868 



M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 



from the top of the slab of ice upon which I had clam- 
bered, I found under its lee a famous bed of soft, dry- 
snow ; and, thoroughly tired out, I threw myself upon it 




■^^ 



BESTING IN THE SNOW. 



and slept for perhaps three hours, when, upon opening 
my eyes, I fancied I saw the flash of a rocket. Jump- 
ing upon my feet, I found that the mist had cleared off, 
and that the stars and aurora borealis were shining in 
all the splendor of an Arctic night. Although unable 
to see the islands or the ship, I wandered about the ice 
in different directions until daylight, when, to my great 
mortification, I found I had passed the ship fully the 
distance of four miles." 

Retracing his steps, M'Clure reached the Investigator 
on the 31st October, very tired, but otherwise none the 
worse for his rough and dangerous exposure to a win- 
ter's night in t3° north latitude. A few hours after- 
wards the sledge arrived, and great was the rejoicing 
on board at the news confirming the discovery of a 
north-west passage. 

During the absence of the captain and his party, the 
officers of the Investigator had not been idle. Upon 
the adjacent shores of Prince of Wales Strait they 



DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 869 

succeeded in killing a fine herd of musk-oxen, consisting 
of three bulls, a cow, and a calf, and yielding a supply 
of twelve hundred and ninety-six pounds of solid meat. 

During the first fortnight in December the temper- 
ature of the external air ranged from 23° to 3*7° below 
zero, whilst between decks from -}-40° to -|-50° was 
the average. From the 9th January, 1851, to the 16th, 
was the coldest period on board the Investigator — the 
thermometer showing 40° to 50° below zero. 

Early one dark and icy morning in January, a man 
named John Eames was walking out upon the floe, 
when he saw a small herd of reindeer trot by. '' It is 
pretty evident,^' says M'Clure, "that, during the whole 
winter, animals may be found in these straits, and that 
the want of sufficient light alone prevents our larder 
being stored with fresh food.'' " Subsequent observa- 
tion," says Commander Osborne, " has completely over- 
thrown the idea that the reindeer, musk-ox, or other 
animals inhabiting the archipelago of islands north of 
America, migrate southward to avoid an Arctic winter. 
Throughout Banks's Land, Melville Island, Bathurst, 
and Cornwallis Land, there have been found indubitable 
proofs of the reindeer, bear, musk-ox, marmot, wolf, 
hare, and ptarmigan, — in short, all the Fauna of these 
climes, — wintering in the latitudes in which they 
are found during the summer." A raven, which had 
haunted the ship during the period of cold and dark- 
ness, left it before the sun reappeared, and his departure 
was sensibly felt by every one on board. 

Early in March, 1851, a whale-boat was carried on 
sledges, with much labor, to the Princess Royal Island, 
and a depot established of three months' victualling for 
the entire crew. In April three sledges were laden 
with provisions for six weeks, and, with six men to each 
sledge, were sent on different courses. One sledge, 



370 M'CLUE,E'S EXPLORATIONS. 

commanded by Lieut. Haswell, was directed to proceed 
to the south-east, following the coast of Prince Albert's 
Land, toward the land seen north of Dolphin and Union 
Strait, and named by its discoverer Wollaston Land ; 
another sledge, under Lieut. Cresswell, was to follow the 
coast of Banks's Land to the north-west ; whilst the 
remaining party, with Mr. Wynniatt, was charged with 
the duty of examining the coast of Albert Land to the 
north-east, toward Cape Walker. On the 18th April the 
several parties, with their sledges, left the ship to search 
for traces of Sir John Franklin and his men. 

They returned, after intervals of from three to seven 
weeks, but without having found any traces of the miss- 
ing navigators, or gained any contributions of moment 
for geographical science. The most important incident 
seems to have been Lieut. Haswell's encounter with 
some Esquimaux, who said they had never before cast 
eyes on a white man. Copper of the purest descrip- 
tion seemed to be plentiful with them, for all their im- 
plements were of that metal ; their arrows were tipped 
with it, and some of the sailors saw a quantity of it in 
a rough state in one of the tents. M'Clure afterwards 
had some friendly interviews with these people, in 
whose decaying prospects he became quite interested. 

As spring advanced, signs of a change began to mul- 
tiply. First came a seal at the hole in the floe kept 
open near the ship in case of fire ; then a large polar 
bear ; and, lastly, hares and ptarmigan. Among the 
startling narratives of Arctic escapes, few exceed that 
of Whitfield, one of the hunters, who lost his way in a 
snow-drift, and was found within a yard of the tent, 
stiff and rigid as a corpse, his head thrown back, his 
eyes fixed, his mouth open and filled with snow, his 
gun slung over his shoulder, and his body being fast 
buried in a snow-wreath. When happily brought to 



DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 371 

himself, he related that whilst struggling with the snow- 
storm he felt a chill, and then a fit came on, during 
which he imagined people came close to him ; he had 
partially recovered, and, discovering a track, had nearly 
reached the tent-door, when he was overtaken by 
another fit, and had sunk down, a yard from the tent- 
door, in the attitude of supplication in which he was 
found. Had not one of the hunters looked out of the 
door by chance, he must have been frozen to death in 
that position, within a yard of a place of refuge ! 

There was great joy on board the Investigator from 
the 10th to the 14th of July, 1851. The floe had com- 
menced breaking up, and on the ITth the good ship cast 
off", — only, however, to be caught in the pack-ice, and 
once more drifted with the crushing floes against the 
cliff's of Princess Eoyal Island. Finally she drifted to 
the tantalizmg distance of twenty-five miles from the 
waters of Barrow's Strait. Further than that, no effort 
could advance the ship ; the young ice at nights had 
already begun to form again, the sun once more set at 
night, the pack-ice closed up the exit, and M'Clure was 
obliged to give the passage up as a hopeless thing, and 
to retrace his steps, in order that, by going round by the 
south of Banks's Land, he might try and reach Melville 
Island from that direction. 

It was a truly grievous position to be placed in, to be 
within some thirty miles of a clear sea, which, had they 
once been able to pass into, they could have reached 
England the same summer, — and to have to turn back 
with the prospect of another winter in the polar regions. 
But the ice was as inexorable as if the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama had stood between them and the Atlantic ; and there 
was no help for it. At first matters went on well, in 
their southerly progress ; not a particle of ice was met 
with. Floes, hummocks, and the huge piles of ice that 
fringed the coast, had alike disappeared. 



372 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

On the 24th of July they had nearly reached Point 
Armstrong, upon which the ice was resting. Here their 
course was checked. There was much drift-wood on 
the beach, of large dimensions, mostly American pine. 
The cutter was consequently despatched for a load, and 
some of the pieces appeared so fresh that the carpenter 
was of opinion that two years was the extreme of their 
quitting the forest. '^ The wind, veering to the west- 
ward during the night,'' says M'Olure, ''set large 
bodies of ice into the water we occupied, which was 
rapidly filling. To prevent being forced on shore, we 
were obliged, at eight a. m. of the 25th, to run into the 
pack, where we drifted, according to the tide, about a 
mile and a half from the beach ; but, during the twenty- 
four hours, made about two miles and a half to the 
north-east, from which, when taken with the quantity 
of drift-wood that is thickly strewed along the beach, I 
am of opinion that on this side of the strait there is a 
slight current to the north-east, while upon the opposite 
one it sets to the southward, upon which there is 
scarcely any wood, and our progress, while similarly 
situated, was in a southern direction. We continued 
drifting in the pack, without meeting any obstruction, 
until ten a. m. of the 1st of August, when a sudden and 
most unexpected motion of the ice swept us with much 
velocity to the north-east, toward a low point, off which 
were several shoals, having many heavy pieces of 
grounded ice upon them, toward which we were directly 
setting, decreasing the soundings from twenty-four to 
nine and a half fathoms. Destruction was apparently 
not far distant, when, most opportunely, the ice eased 
a little, and, a fresh wind coming from the land, sail was 
immediately made, which, assisted by warps, enabled 
the ship to be forced ahead about two hundred yards, 
which shot us clear of the ice and the point into sixteen 



DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 373 

and a half fathoms, in which water we rounded the 
shoals ; the ice then again closed, and the ship became 
fixed until the 14th of August, when the fog, which 
since the previous day had been very dense, cleared, 
and disclosed open water about half a mile from the 
vessel, with the ice loose about her/' 

The difficulty of clearing away large masses of ice 
was, to some extent, obviated by blasting. " Previously 
to quitting the floe,'' says M'Clure, '' I was desirous of 
trying what effect blasting would have upon such a 
mass. A jar containing thirty-six pounds of powder 
was let down twelve feet into the water near the cen- 
tre ; the average thickness was eleven feet, and its 
diameter four hundred yards. The result was most sat- 
isfactory, rending it in every direction, so that with ease 
we could effect a passage through any part of it." 

Cape Kellett was rounded with some little difficulty, 
the ship passing between the edge of grounded ice and 
the coast. The land was now so low that the hand 
lead-line became for a while their best guide ; the sound- 
ings happily were regular, and, aided by it and a fair 
wind, they advanced apace to the northward. Through- 
out the 19th of August, 1861, the ship sometimes ran 
as much as seven knots per hour, the width of the lane 
of water in which they were sailing varying from three 
to five miles. Noon that day found them in 13° 55' 
north latitude, and 123° 52' 30" west longitude ; and 
already did M'Clure count upon extending his voyage 
to the north of Melville Island, and then striking for 
some strait or sound leading into Baffin's Bay. 

That night, however, a sudden and remarkable change 
took place. They had just crossed Burnet Bay, within 
Norway and Robilliard Island, when the coast suddenly 
became as abrupt and precipitous as a wall ; the water 
was very deep, — sixty fathoms by the lead-line within 
32 



374 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

four hundred yards of the face of the cliffs, and fifteen 
fathoms water when actually touching them. The lane 
of water had diminished to two hundred yards in width 
where broadest ; and even that space was much ham- 
pered by loose pieces of ice aground or adrift. In some 
places the channel was so narrow that the quarter-boats 
had to be topped up to prevent their touching the cliffs 
upon the one hand, or the lofty ice upon the other ; and 
so perfectly were they running the gauntlet, that on 
many occasions the ship could not " round to,'' for want 
of space. 

Their position was full of peril ; yet they could but 
push on, for retreat was now as dangerous as progress. 
The pack was of the same fearful description as one 
they had fallen in with in the offing of the Mackenzie 
River, during the previous autumn ; it drew forty and 
fifty feet, of water, and rose in rolling hills upon the 
surface, some of them a hundred feet from base to sum- 
mit. Any attempt to force the frail ship against such 
ice was of course mere folly ; all they could do was to 
watch for every opening, trust in the mercy of God, 
and push ahead in the execution of their duty. If the 
ice at such a time had set in with its vast force against 
the sheer cliff, nothing, they all felt, could have saved 
them. 

Enough has been said to give a correct idea of the 
peril incurred at this stage of the voyage, without en- 
tering into minute details of the hair-breadth escapes 
hourly taking place ; but one instance may be given as 
a sample of the rest. After the 20th of August the In- 
vestigator lay helplessly fixed off the north-west of 
Banks's Land ; the wind had pressed in the ice, and for 
a while all hopes of further progress were at an end. 
On the 29th of August, however, a sudden move took 
place, and a moving floe struck a huge mass to which 



DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 375 

the ship had been secured, and, to the horror of those 
on board, such was the enormous power exerted that 
the mass slowly reared itself on its edge close to the 
ship's bows, until the upper part was higher than the 
fore-yard ; and every moment appeared likely to be the 
Investigator's last, for the ice had but to topple over to 
sink her and her crew under its weight. At the criti- 
cal moment there was a shout of joy ; for the mass, 
after oscillating fearfully, broke up, rolled back in its 
original position, and they were saved. 

Hardly, however, was this danger past than a fresh 
one threatened ; for the berg to which the ship was se- 
cured was impelled forward by the whole weight of the 
driving pack toward a low point of land, on which with 
frightful pressure the great floes were breaking up, and 
piling themselves tier upon tier. The Investigator had 
no power of escape ; but every hawser was put in re- 
quisition, and hands stationed by them. An attempt 
to blow up a grounded berg, upon which the ship was 
driving, only partially succeeded ; the nip came on, the 
poor ship groaned, and every plank and timber quivered 
from stem to stern, in this trial of strength between her 
and the ice. ^' Our fate seemed sealed,'' says M'Clure ; 
and he made up his mind to let go all hawsers. The 
order was given, and with it the wreck of the Investi- 
gator seemed certain : all the leader hoped for was — to 
•use his own words — ''that we might have the ship 
thrown up sufiSciently to serve as an asylum for the 
winter." If she should sink between the two con- 
tending bergs, the destruction of every soul was inev- 
itable. 

But, at the very moment when the order to " let go 
all hawsers " was given, and even before it could be 
obeyed, a merciful Providence caused the berg, which 
most threatened, to break up, and the Investigator was 



316 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

once more saved ; though still so tightly was she beset, 
that there was not room to drop a lead-line down round 
the vessel, and the copper upon her bottom was hang- 
ing in shreds, or rolled up like brown paper. By mid- 
night the ice was stationar^^ and everything quiet. 

They were now upon the north-west extreme of 
Banks's Land, and here officers and men rambled into 
the interior, which they did not find so sterile- as the 
view from the sea had led them to expect. Traces of 
musk-oxen and deer abounded, and both were seen ; 
but perhaps the most extraordinary discovery of all was 
a great accumulation of fossil trees, as well as frag- 
ments not fossilized, lying over the whole extent of the 
land, from an elevation of three hundred feet above the 
sea to its immediate level. Writing on the 2*7th of 
August, M'Clure says: ''I walked to-day a short dis- 
tance into the interior ; the snow that had fallen last 
night lay unthawed upon the high grounds, rendering 
the prospect most cheerless. The hills are very remark- 
able, many of them peaked, and standing isolated from 
each other by precipitous gorges. The summits of these 
hills are about three hundred feet high, and nothing can 
be more wildly picturesque than the gorges which lie 
between them. From the summit of these singularly- 
formed hills to their base, abundance of wood is to be 
found ; and in many places layers of trees are visible, 
some protruding twelve or fourteen feet, and so firm 
that several people may jump on them without, their 
breaking : the largest trunk yet found measured one 
foot seven inches in diameter.'' 

Again, on September 5th, some miles from the hills 
just alluded to, M'Clure says : "I entered a ravine some 
miles inland, and found the north side of it, for a 
depth of forty feet from the surface, composed of one 
mass of wood similar to what I had before seen. The 



WINTER IN THE BAY OE MERCY. 377 

whole depth of the ravine was about two hundred feet. 
The ground around the wood or trees was formed of 
sand and shingle ; some of the wood was petrified, the 
remainder very rotten, and worthless even for burning.'^ 

At a subsequent period, Lieutenant Mecham met 
with a similar kind of fossil forest in Prince Patrick 
Island, nearly one hundred and twenty miles further 
north. 

This phenomenon gives rise to speculation as to some 
period in the world's history when the absence of ice 
and a milder climate allowed forest-trees to grow in a 
region where now the ground willow and dwarf birch 
have to struggle for existence. 

On the 1st of September, 1851, winter appeared to 
have overtaken the Investigator in her forlorn position ; 
but on the 18th the wind veered, and the ice went off 
from the coast, carrying the ship with it, drifting her to 
the northward. On the 19th, having got free of the ice 
which clung to her sides, the ship got into a lane of 
water stretching eastward ; and, on the 22d, rounding 
Cape Austin, fairly entered into Melville Strait. At 
length, on the 24th, they found themselves in a large 
bay at the western extremity of Banks's Land, and, 
seeing that it was impossible to round its north-eastern 
horn, M'Clure made up his mind to winter where he 
was ; and, in token of his gratitude for his many provi- 
dential escapes, he appropriately called the place " The 
Bay of Mercy.'' That night they were firmly frozen in. 

It was now certain that they would have to spend 
another winter in the ice. With slight exceptions, the 
arrangements made were much the same as those of the 
previous winter. The allowance of food was reduced, 
to meet the contingency of an escape from the ice not 
being effected the following year ; but this inconvenience 
was, to some extent, obviated by its being discovered 
32* 



878 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

that the land teemed with deer and hares. " As there 
appeared much game in the vicinity/' writes Captain 
M'Clure, '' and the weather continued mild, shooting 
parties were established in different directions between 
the 9th and 23d of October ; so that, with what was 
killed from the ship, our supply of fresh provisions at 
the commencement of the winter consisted of nine deer, 
fifty-three hares, and forty-four ptarmigan, all in fine 
condition, the former having from two to three inches 
of fat." 

The herds of deer and troops of hares that congregated 
on the broad plains of dwarf willow, reindeer-moss, and 
coarse grasses in the interior, are described as perfectly 
marvellous. Wolves and foxes also abounded, and, as 
cold and darkness increased, the former, pressed by 
hunger, used to haunt the ship to a disagreeable extent ; 
and the sad prolonged howl of these gaunt creatures in 
the long nights added, if possible, to the dismal char- 
acter of the scene. Two ravens also established them- 
selves as friends of the family in Mercy Bay, and used 
to trick the ship's dog out of his meals by enticing him 
away, flying a few yards at a time, he running at them 
till they had got him some distance away, when they 
would make a direct flight back, and have done good 
execution before the mortified dog detected the imposi- 
tion practised upon him, and rushed back again. 

''In consequence of our favored position,'' says 
M'Clure, ''the crew were enabled to ramble over the 
hills almost daily in quest of game, and their exertions 
happily supplied a fresh meal of venison three times a 
fortnight, with the exception of about three weeks in 
January, when it was too dark for shooting. The small 
game, such as ptarmigan and hares, being scarce, were 
allowed to be retained by the sportsmen as private 
property. This healthy and exhilarating exercise kept 



HUNTING PARTIES. 379 

us all well and in excellent spirits during another 
tedious winter, so that on the 1st of April we had 
upwards of a thousand pounds of venison hanging at 
the yard-arms/' 

Musk-oxen were very numerous. They were found 
to be very ferocious, and great danger sometimes 
attended the attacks. They were easily approached, 
but when wounded they ran headlong at their assailant. 
On one occasion, Sergeant Woon, of the marines, while 
in pursuit of a wounded deer, unexpectedly met a 
couple of musk-bulls, which he succeeded in wounding. 
Having expended his shot, as one of the wounded and 
infuriated monsters rushed towards him, he fired his 
'' worm '^ when at a few yards, but without much effect. 
The animal continued his advances, evidently, however, 
weak from loss of blood, till he had reached within six 
feet, when he put his head to the ground, as if for a 
final rush. As his last resource, the sergeant fired his 
iron ramrod, which, entering behind the animal's left 
shoulder, passed through the heart and out at the right 
flank, dropping him lifeless. 

December found the crew of the Investigator passing 
their time cheerfully in their far-distant home in Mercy 
Bay. The month came in with a succession of those 
tremendous snow-storms, which are, perhaps, the most 
frightful visitations of the polar regions. But, after the 
new year (1852) began, the weather was fine, with a 
keen and steady cold of from seventy to eighty degrees 
below the freezing-point of water — a temperature which 
severely tests the vital energies of man. Yet, what 
with cheerfulness, exercise, and regular habits, the crew 
were in good health. 

One of the hunting parties had well-nigh proved fatal 
to a colored man serving on board the ship. He had 
wounded a deer, and chased it till a fog came on, and 



380 M'CLUKE'S EXPLOKITIONS. 

he lost his way. It was in January, and the weather 
was bitterly cold ; the poor feUow began to fancy him- 
self frozen to death, and lost his wits entirely. While 
in this state, Sergeant Woon met him, and offered to 
lead him to the ship. The negro, beside himself with 
terror, could not be made to understand anything, and 
stood crying and shuddering till he fell down in a fit. 
The sergeant waited till he was restored, and then 
either carried him on his back or rolled him down hills 
and hummocks for ten long hours, till he got him within 
a mile of the ship. But the sergeant was by this time 
exhausted. He exerted all his powers of eloquence 
upon the negro to induce him to walk. The poor creat- 
ure only begged to be " let alone to die." Finding all 
his arguments unavailing, the sergeant laid him in a 
bed of deep snow, and, with all his remaining strength, 
ran alone to the ship. He procured assistance directly, 
and, returning to the place where he had left the negro, 
found him with his arms stiff and raised above his head, 
his eyes open, and his mouth so firmly frozen that it 
required great force to open it to pour down restora- 
tives. He was alive, however, and eventually recov- 
ered, though his hands, feet, and face, were much frost- 
bitten. This case, and a similar one already related, 
illustrate, in a striking manner, not only the eflect of 
intense cold on the body and mind, but also how much 
the safety of the former depends on the exercise of the 
latter. 

On the 5th of February the sun was seen above the 
horizon, and the sportsmen became more successful, 
scarcely a day passing without a deer or hare being 
shot ; and keen must have been the hunger of those 
sportsmen, for more than one of them, when, after a 
long and weary walk, he shot a deer or hare, refreshed 
himself with a draught of the animal's hot blood, or by 



A THIRD WINTER APPROACHING. 381 

eating a mouthful or two of the raw meat. The wolves 
had also become exceedingly bold, and tales are told of 
the sportsman pulling at one end of a slain deer, and 
the wolves at the other ! 

On the 11th of April, 1852, a sledge excursion was 
made to Winter Harbor, Melville Island, — the old 
winter quarters of Sir Edward Parry, — and notice found 
of Lieutenant M'Clintock's having been there from the 
west, the previous summer. M'Clure here deposited a 
notice of his own visit, under the same cairn that had 
protected the notice left by his predecessor. 

It is remarkable that, shortly after M'Clure's visit to 
^this spot, a sledge-party from the Enterprise, which had 
wintered at the south end of Prince of Wales Strait, 
after having been up to near its northern extremity, and 
having been foiled, like the Investigator, in getting into 
Melville Strait, actually visited the same spot, without 
either party knowing that the other was so close, so 
gre^t is the difficulty of meeting one another in regions 
like those of the Arctic archipelago. 

Although the sportsmen continued to meet with great 
success, and at one period no less than twenty head of 
deer were hanging up round the ship, yielding a thou- 
sand pounds of meat, scurvy began to show itself, and to 
make marked progress among the crew. On the 1st of 
July there were six men in their beds, and sixteen had 
evident symptoms of debility, with incipient scurvy. 
On the 16th open water was seen in the straits, but the 
ice in the bay prevented their getting to it, and on the 
24th the lead of water had. closed! It became too obvi- 
ous that the winter was again setting in. All hope of 
deliverance for another season was cut off ! 

"On the 20th of August, 1852,'' says M'Clure, "the 
temperature fell to 27°, when the entire bay was com- 
pletely frozen over ; and, on the 2'7th, the temperature 



882 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

fell to 19°, so that the whole aspect was cheerless in 
the extreme. The young ice was two and a half inches 
thick, so that the whole bay might be safely perambu- 
lated. Indeed, the summer was fairly gone, for the 
uplands were all snow-covered, the wild-fowl all de- 
parted, and the flowers, which gave cheerful variety to 
this bleak land, were all withered. The very season 
might be considered as one long, sunless day, as since 
the latter part of May the great luminary had been 
scarcely visible, or his influence scarcely felt upon those 
icy masses which block Barrow's Strait entirely across ; 
nor do I imagine that the Polar Sea had broken up that 
season, as not a dro23 of water had been seen in that 
direction. 

"During July, and the early part of August, the 
crew were daily employed gathering sorrel, of which 
there was a great quantity upon the hills in this vicinity. 
Eaten as a salad, with vinegar, or boiled, when it 
resembled spinach, it was found a most admirable anti- 
scorbutic, and a great benefit to all, being exceed- 
ingly relished ; but this hardy and miserable herbage 
could not withstand the rigorous summer beyond the 
15th of the month. 

"For several days the ice had been perfectly station- 
ary, and no water visible in any direction, that along 
the cliffs of Banks's Land being frozen ; so that I felt 
assured that the winter had fairly set in, and all hopes 
of any release this year were totally annihilated, the 
young ice being five inches thick. Having previously 
determined what course I should adopt under circum- 
stances thus unfavorable, upon the 8th of September I 
announced my intentions to the crew of sending half of 
them to England next April, with all the officers not in 
charge of stores, vid Baffin's Bay (taking the boat from 
Cape Spencer) and the Mackenzie, detaining the re- 



GALLANT KESOLVE. 383 

mainder with the hope of extricating the vessel during 
the summer of 1853 ; or, failing that, to proceed with 
sledges in 1854 by Port Leopold, our provisions admit- 
ting of no other arrangement. 

"Although we had already been twelve months upon 
two thirds allowance, it was necessarj'^ to make prepara- 
tions for meeting eighteen months more ; a very severe 
deprivation and constitutional test, but one which the 
service we were employed upon called for, the vessel 
being as sound as the day she entered the ice ; it would, 
therefore, be discreditable to desert her in 1853, when 
a favorable season would run her through the straits 
and admit of reaching England in safety, where the 
-successful achievement of the long-sought-for and almost 
hopeless discovery of the north-west passage would 
be received with a satisfaction that would amply com- 
pensate for the sacrifices made and hardships endured 
in its most trying and tedious accomplishment. This 
statement was well received, and its execution will, I 
hope, be carried out without difficulty.'^ 

It is due to Captain M'Clure to reproduce one passage 
in the dispatch which he had prepared to send home 
with the land parties he was about to forward in the 
spring of 1853. 

" Should any of her majesty's ships be sent for our 
relief, and we have quitted Port Leopold, a notice, con- 
taining information of our route, will be left on the door 
of the house at Whalers' Point, or on some conspicuous 
position. If, however, no intimation should be found 
of our having been there, it may at once be surmised 
that some fatal catastrophe has happened, either from 
our being carried into the Polar Sea, or smashed in Bar- 
row's Strait, and no survivors left. If such be the case, 
— which, however, I will not anticipate, — it will then 
be quite unnecessary to penetrate further to the west- 



884 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 

ward for our relief, as, by the period that any vessel 
could reach that port, we must, from want of provi- 
sions, all have perished. In such a case, I would 
submit that the officers may be directed to return, and 
by no means incur the danger of losing other lives in 
quest of those who will then be no more.'' 

The ship was banked up with snow and housed over 
on the 18th of November, and every preparation made 
for spending a third winter in this region of icy desola- 
tion. The spirits of the crew, however, did not flag. 
Resort was again had to the hunting expeditions which 
had occupied and cheered them so much in previous 
years, and their larder was kept well stocked with pro- 
visions. The wolves so harassed the deer, that the 
latter poor creatures actually fled to the ship for pro- 
tection. 

" The hares and ptarmigan,'' writes M'Clure, ''have 
descended from the high ground to the sea ridges, so 
that a supply of game has been kept up during the win- 
ter, which has enabled a fresh meal to be issued twice 
weekly, and the usual Christmas festivities to pass off 
with the greatest cheerfulness. As it was to be our 
last, the crew were determined to make it memorable, 
and their exertions were completely successful ; each 
mess was gayly illuminated and decorated with original 
paintings by our lower-deck artists, exhibiting the ship 
in her perilous positions during the transit of the Polar 
Sea, and divers other subjects ; but the grand features 
of the day were the enormous plum-puddings (some 
weighing twenty-six pounds), haunches of venison, 
hares roasted, and soup made of the same, with ptar- 
migan and sea pies. Such dainties in such profusion I 
should imagine never before graced a ship's lower-deck ; 
any stranger, to have witnessed this scene, could but 
faintly imagine that he saw a crew which had passed 



PLAN OF ESCAPE. 385 

upwards of two years in these dreary regions, and 
three entirely upon their own resources, enjoying such 
excellent health — so joyful, so happy : indeed, such a 
mirthful assemblage, under any circumstances, would 
be most gratifying to any officer ; but, in this lonely 
situation, I could not but feel deeply impressed, as I 
contemplated the gay and plenteous sight, with the 
many and great mercies which a kind and beneficent 
Providence had extended toward us, to whom alone 
is due the heartfelt praises and thanksgivings of all for 
the great blessings which we have hitherto experienced 
in positions the most desolate which can be con- 
ceived." 

So another winter passed. The spring again returned, 
and the season rapidly approached when the crew was 
to divide, and the travelling parties were to set out on 
their long and perilous journeys : the one to return home 
by the way of the Mackenzie Eiver and Canada ; the 
other to proceed to Cape Spencer (where a boat and 
provisions had been deposited), and thence by Barrow's 
Strait to make their way to the nearest inhabited coast. 
That these journeys would prove long and dangerous 
in the extreme, could not be doubted ; for the return 
parties were composed of the most weakly hands, thirty 
of the healthiest men being retained to stand by the 
ship with the captain, and brave the rigors of another 
Arctic winter. 

But, while M'Clure and his gallant comrades were 
thus about to resort to their last desperate expedient 
for communicating with the civilized world, relief was 
at hand of which they had little expectation. Provi- 
dential circumstances interposed to do away with the 
necessity of committing their forlorn hopes to the snow 
and ice deserts of the polar regions. These extraor- 
dinary circumstances will be narrated in another chapter. 
33 



CHAPTER XYII. 

VOYAGE OF THE RESOLUTE AND INTREPID. — ARBIVAL AT DEALT ISLAND. 

— SLEDGE-PARTIES. PARRY'S SANDSTONE AGAIN. NEWS FROM THE 

INVESTIGATOR. PIm'S JOURNEY. MEETING "WITH m'cLURE. RETURN 

TO THE RESOLUTE. — MORE DEATHS REPORTED. — ABANDONMENT OF THE 
INVESTIGATOR. — A WEARY SUMMER. CRESSWELL SENT WITH DIS- 
PATCHES. INCIDENTS IN THE VOYAGE OF THE PHCENIX. — LOSS OF THE 

BREDALBANE TRANSPORT. — DEATH OF BELLOT. HIS AMIABLE CHAR- 
ACTER. THE PHCENIX AND TALBOT SENT OUT. 

A parent's solicitude for his son saved the crew of 
the Investigator. We must now again take up the story 
of Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, which we left at 
Beechey Island on the 15th of August, 1852, just sep- 
arating into two divisions, — one to proceed north, the 
other west. It is the westward division with which we 
have now to do. It was suggested to the British Ad- 
miralty by Mr. Cresswell, who had a son with M'Clure, 
that that part of Belcher's expedition which was des- 
tined for Wellington Channel should be directed upon 
Melville Island, as it was the opinion of General Sabine 
and Captain Kellett that if Captains Collinson and 
M'Clure were unable to reach that island with their 
ships, still they would push in there with their sledges. 
The senior lord of the Admiralty saw the soundness of 
Mr. Cresswell's views ; and the Kesolute and Intrepid, 
ander Captains Kellett and M'Clintock, were ordered to 
proceed to Melville Island. 

In nearing Assistance Bay, only thirty miles from 
Beechey Island, at which point Captain Kellett was to 
leave a depot, the Resolute grounded, was left with but 



SLEDGE-PARTIES. 387 

seven feet of water, thrown over on her starboard bilge, 
and almost lost. At midnight, however, she was got 
off, leaving sixty feet of her false keel behind. 

Kellett forged on in her, leaving depots here and 
there as he proceeded ; and at the end of the summer 
had reached Melville Island, the westernmost point at- 
tained by Parry in 1820. Kellett's associate, Capt. 
M'Clintock, of the Intrepid^ had commanded the only 
party which had been here since Parry, having come 
over with sledges from Austin's squadron, in 1851, as 
the reader will remember. 

The Resolute and Intrepid came to anchor off Dealy 
Island, the place selected for their winter quarters ; and 
then Capt. Kellett and his ofiScers, with great spirit, 
began to prepare for the extended searching parties of 
the next spring. Officers were already assigned to the 
proposed lines of search ; and in order to extend the 
searches as much as possible, and to prepare the men 
for the work when it should come, sledge-parties were 
sent forward to make advanced depots, in the autumn, 
under the charge of the gentlemen who would have to 
use them in the spring. 

One of these parties — the ''South line of Melville 
Island " party — was under a spirited young officer, 
Mr. Mecham, who had seen service in the last expedi- 
tion. He had two sledges, the Discovery and the Fear- 
less, a depot of twenty days' provision to be used in 
the spring, and enough for twenty-five days' present 
use. All the sledges had little flags, made by some 
young lady friends of Sir Edward Belcher's. Mr. 
Mecham's bore an armed hand and sword on a white 
ground, with the motto, "Per mare, per terram, per 
glaciem.^' Over mud, land, snow, and ice, they carried 
their burden ; and were nearly back, when, on the 12th 
of October, 1852, Mr. Mecham visited "Parry's Sand- 



888 A DISCOVERY. 

stone," near Winter Harbor, where he had been bidden 
to leave a record. He went on in advance of his party, 
meaning to cut the date, 1852, on the stone. On top 
of it was a small cairn, built by M'Clintock the year 
before. Mecham examined this, and, to his surprise, a 
copper cylinder rolled out. " On opening it," he says, 
"1 drew out a roll folded in a bladder, which, being 
frozen, broke and crumbled. From its dilapidated ap- 
pearance, I thought, at the moment, it must be some 
record of Sir Edward Parry ; and, fearing I might damage 
it, laid it down with the intention of lighting the fire to 
thaw it. My curiosity, however, overcame my pru- 
dence, and, on opening it carefully with my knife, I came 
to a roll of cartridge-paper with the impression fresh 
upon the seals. My astonishment may be conceived on 
finding it contained an accoimt of the proceedings of 
her majesty's ship Investigator since parting company 
with the Herald (Capt. Kellett's old ship), in August, 
1850, in Behring's Strait : also a chart which disclosed 
to view not only the long-sought north-west passage, but 
the completion of the survey of Banks's and WoUaston 
Lands. I opened and endorsed Commander M'Clintock's 
dispatch, and found it contained the following additions : 

* Opened and copied by his old friend and messmate, upon this date, 
April 28, 1852. Robert M'Cluke. 

' Party all well, and return to Investigator to-day.' " 

A great discovery, indeed, to flash across one in a 
minute ! The Investigator had not been heard from for 
more than two years. Here was news of her not yet 
six months old ! The north-west passage had been 
dreamed of for three centuries and more. Here was 
news of its discovery, — news that had been known to 
M'Clure for two years ! M'Clure and M'Clintock were 



A FORLORN HOPE. 389 

lieutenants together in the Enterprise when she was 
sent after Sir John Franklin, in 1848, and wintered to- 
gether in her at Port Leopold. Now, from different 
hemispheres, they had come so near meeting at this old 
block of sandstone ! Mr. Mecham bade his mate build 
a new cairn, to put the record of the story in, and hur- 
ried on to the Resolute with his great news. 

It thus became known to Kellett and his companions 
that the Investigator had been frozen up in the Bay of 
Mercy, only one hundred and seventy miles from their 
own position. It must have been a sore trial, to all par- 
ties, to wait the winter through, and not even get a 
message across. But, until winter made it too cold and 
dark to travel, the ice in the strait was so broken up 
that it was impossible to attempt to traverse it, even 
with a light boat for the lanes of water. So, the differ- 
ent autumn parties came in, and the officers and men 
entered on their winter's work and play, to push off the 
winter days as quickly as they could. 

The system of travelling in the fall and spring 
abridges materially the length of the Arctic winter as 
Ross, Parry, and Back, used to experience it ; and it 
was only from the 1st of November to the 10th of 
March that Kellett's party were left to their own re- 
sources. Late in October one of the Resolute's men 
died, and in December one of the Intrepid's ; but, ex- 
cepting these cases, they had little sickness — for weeks 
no one on the sick-list ; — indeed, Capt. Kellett says that 
a sufficiency of good provisions, with plenty of work, 
in the open air, will insure good health in the Arctic 
climate. 

As early in the spring as he dared risk a travelling 

party, namely, on the 10th of March, 1853, he sent 

what they all called a forlorn hope across to the Bay 

of Mercy, to find traces of the Investigator ; for they 

33* 



890 PIM'S JOURNEY. 

scarcely ventured to hope that she was still there. This 
start was earlier by thirty-five days than the early par- 
ties had started on the preceding expedition. But it 
was every way essential that, if M'Clure had wintered 
in the Bay of Mercy, the messenger should reach him 
before he sent off any or all his men, in travelling par- 
ties, in the spring. The little forlorn hope consisted of 
ten men, under the command of Lieut. Pim, an officer 
who had been with Kellett in the Herald on the Pacific 
side, had spent a winter in the Plover up Behring's 
Strait, and had been one of the last men whom M'Clure 
and his crew had seen before they sailed into the Arctic 
Ocean, to discover, as it proved, the north-west pas- 
sage. 

Lieut. Pim started with a sledge and seven men un- 
der his own immediate command, and a dog-sledge with 
two men under Dr. Domville, the surgeon, who was to 
bring back the earliest news to Captain Kellett. There 
was also a relief-sledge to accompany the party a por- 
tion of the way. Pim's orders were to go at once to 
the Bay of Mercy in search of the Investigator ; if she 
was gone, to follow any traces of her, and if possible to 
communicate with her or her consort, the Enterprise. 

One of the sledges broke down soon after the party 
started, and they had to send back for another. Bad 
weather came on, and compelled them to encamp on the 
ice. "Fortunately,^' says the lieutenant, "the temper- 
ature arose from fifty-one degrees below zero to thirty- 
fsix below, and there remained ; '^ while the drifts accu- 
mulated to such a degree around the tents, that within 
them the thermometer was only twenty below, and 
when they cooked rose to zero. There they lay three 
days, smoking and sleeping in their bags. On the 
fourth day a new sledge arrived from the ship, and they 
got under way again. Thus far they were running 



PIM'S JOURNEY. 391 

along the shore ; but they soon sent back the relief-party 
which had brought the new sledge, and a few days after 
set out to cross a strait, some thirty miles wide, which, 
when it is open (as no man has yet seen it), is one 
avenue of the north-west passage discovered by these 
expeditions. 

They got on slowly, and with great difficulty. Only 
three miles the first day, four miles the second day, two 
and a half the third, and half a mile the fourth ; this 
was all they gained by most laborious hauling over the 
broken ice, dragging one sledge at a time, and some- 
times carrying forward the stores separately, and going 
back for the sledges. Two days more gave them 
another eight miles, but on the seventh day of their 
passage across this narrow strait the great sledge 
slipped off a smooth hummock, broke one runner, and 
brought the party to a stand-still. 

Having now nothing but the little dog-sledge to carry 
them on, — with the ship a hundred miles off, and the 
thermometer at eighteen below zero, — the two officers 
had some discussion as to their future proceedings. 
Dr. Domville, whose sledge, the James Fitzjames, was 
still sound, thought they had best leave the stores and 
go back ; but Lieut. Pim, who had the chief command, 
thought otherwise ; so he took the James Fitzjames, 
with the two men belonging to it, and pushed on, leav- 
ing the doctor in the floe, but giving him directions to 
take the broken sledge back to land, and there wait for 
him to return. 

On went the lieutenant and his two men, over ice, 
over hummock, — feeding their dogs on preserved meats 
for want of game, — until they left the strait behind, 
and came to Banks's Land. Still they found no game. 
Pim was taken sick, and for a whole day was obliged 
to remain shut up in the tent. A few hours' sleep re- 



392 MEETING WITH M'CLURE. 

freshed him, and the party started on again. At last, 
after many weary days' travel, they got upon the Bay 
of Mercy. No ship was in sight. Eight across the 
bay went the lieutenant to search for records, when, at 
two o'clock p. M., one of the men saw something black 
in the distance. Pim looked through his glass, and 
made it out to be a ship. Forthwith the whole party 
proceeded as fast as possible toward it. Pim, hurrying 
along, soon got in advance of the sledge, and walked 
on alone. 



On the 6th of April, 1853, the little crew of the In- 
vestigator was in low spirits : one of their comrades 
had just poisoned himself All hands were preparing 
for the separation which was to take place in the follow- 
ing week, and were looking forward with gloomy fore- 
bodings to their slender chances of escape, when an 
event occurred, which we give in M'Clure's own words : 

" While walking near the ship, in conversation with 
the first lieutenant upon the subject of digging a grave 
for the man who died yesteTday, and discussing how we 
could cut a grave in the ground whilst it was so hardly 
frozen (a subject naturally sad and depressing), we per- 
ceived a figure walking rapidly towards us from the 
rough ice at the entrance of the bay. From his pace 
and gestures we both naturally supposed, at first, that 
he was some one of our party pursued by a bear ; but, 
as we approached him, doubts arose as to who it could 
be. He was certainly unlike any of our men ; but, 
recollecting that it was possible some one might be try- 
ing a new travelling-dress preparatory to the departure 
of our sledges, and certain that no one else was near, 
we continued to advance. 

" When within about two hundred yards of us, the 
strange figure threw up his arms, and made gesticula- 



MEETING WITH M'CLURE. 393 

tions resembling those used by Esquimaux, besides shout- 
ing at the top of his voice words which, from the wind 
and intense excitement of the moment, sounded like a 
wild screech : and this brought us both fairly to a stand- 
still. The stranger came quietly on, and we saw that 
his face was as black* as ebony ; and really, at the mo- 
ment, we might be pardoned for wondering whether ho 
was a denizen of this or the other world ; as it was, 
we gallantly stood our ground, and, had the skies fallen 
upon us, we could hardly have been more astonished 
than when the dark-faced stranger called out, ' I 'm Lieu- 
tenant Pim, late of the Herald, and now in the Reso- 
lute. Captain Kellett is in her, at Dealy Island.^ 

'' To rush at and seize him by the hand was the first 
impulse, for the heart was too full for the tongue to 
speak. The announcement of relief being close at 
hand, when none was supposed to be even within the 
Arctic Circle, was too sudden, unexpected, and joyous, 
for our minds to comprehend it at once. The news 
flew with lightning rapidity ; the ship was all in com- 
motion ; the sick, forgetful of their maladies, leaped 
from their hammocks ; the artificers dropped their tools, 
and the lower deck was cleared of men ; for they all 
rushed for the hatchway, to be assured that a stranger 
was actually among them, and that his tale was true. 
Despondency fled the ship, and Lieut. Pim received a 
welcome — pure, hearty, and grateful — that he will 
surely remember and cherish to the end of his days." 

On the 8th of April, Pim and his men, accompanied 
by M'Clure with a sledge-party, set out on their return. 
Dr. Domville, who had improved his time by mending 
the broken sledge and killing five musk-oxen, joined 
them on the way; and on the 19th they all arrived at 
the quarters of the Resolute and Intrepid. Capt. Kellett 

* Rendered black by the lamp-smoke in his tent. 



394 ABANDONMENT OF THE INVESTIGATOR. 

was at fii'st inclined to favor M'Clure's plan of endeav- 
oring to save the Investigator ; but on the 2d May 
Lieut. Cresswell arrived from her with the report of two 
more deaths. Then it was arranged that Dr. Domville 
should go back with M'Clure and hold a survey on the 
health of the crew ; that those who were unfitted to 
stand another winter should be ordered home, and that 
the healthy should have their option of going or re- 
maining. The result was that only four men were will- 
iug to remain, though the officers all gallantly volun- 
teered to stand by the vessel. Boats, stores, &c., were 
accordingly landed to form a depot for the use of Collin- 
son, Franklin, or any other person who might happen 
along, and on the 3d June, 1853, the colors were hoisted 
to the mast-head, and officers and crew bade a last 
farewell to the Investigator. They arrived at Dealy 
Island on the l*7th, and were accommodated on board 
the Resolute and Intrepid. 

Kellett's plan was to send them down to Beechey Island 
in the Intrepid at the first breaking up of the ice. More 
than half his crews were out on searching expeditions 
when the Investigator's men arrived. Parties under 
M'Clintock, Mecham, and Hamilton, were searching 
every foot of land to the north and north-west of Mel- 
ville Island. They all came in at last, having found no 
traces of Sir John Franklin. Finding that nothing more 
could be done in a north-west direction, Kellett deter- 
mined to take both vessels to Beechey Island as soon as 
the ice would admit. All his arrangements were made 
for starting at any moment. He built a store-house on 
the island, stocked it well with provisions, and left in it 
this record : 

" This is a house which I have named the ' Sailor's Home,' under the 
especial patronage of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 

" Here royal sailors and marines are fed, clothed, and receive double 
pay for inhabiting it." 



LOSS OF BREDALBANE TRANSPORT. 395 

All the other usual expedients were resorted to to while 
away the time ; but after the excitement of the search- 
ing parties was over the summer passed drearily. The 
ice showed no sign of breaking up. Mr. Eoche, mate 
of the Resolute, who had been sent down to the North 
Star for provisions, returned unexpectedly, having been 
to Beechey Island and back, a distance of six hundred 
miles, in six weeks. Capt. Richards arrived from North- 
umberland Sound, bringing news from Belcher's divi- 
sion. Little else occurred to break the monotony. 

Meanwhile Lieut. Cresswell had been sent down to 
Beechey Island with dispatches for the Admiralty. 
There he had the good fortune to be taken on board of 
the Phoenix, in which, as we have seen, he returned to 
England, bringing the first news of the safety of the 
Investigator, and the discovery of the north-west pas- 
sage. 

Before we proceed further with the adventures of the 
companions whom he left at Dealy Island, there are some 
other matters of interest connected with this voyage 
of the Phoenix, which it will be well to relate in this 
place. One of these is the loss of the Bredalbane trans- 
port, by one of those terrible " nips '' which are so often 
encountered in the polar seas. This occurred near Cape 
Riley, on the 21st August, 1853, and was witnessed by 
the crew of the Phoenix, in which vessel the Bredalbane's 
crew took refuge. It shows how very easily a vessel 
may be destroyed in the Arctic regions, without a ves- 
tige being left behind to tell the tale. We give the 
incident in the words of Mr. Fowckner, the agent for 
the ship, who was on board at the time : 

"About ten minutes past four the ice passing the 
ship awoke me, and the door of my cabin, from the 
pressure, opened. I hurriedly put on my clothes, and, 
on getting up, found some hands on the ice endeavor- 



396 LOSS OF BREDALBANE TRANSPORT. 

ing to save the boats, but these were instantly crushed to 
pieces. I went forward to hail the Phoenix, for men to 
save the boats ; and whilst doing so the ropes by which 
we were secured parted, and a heavy nip took the ship, 
making her tremble all over, and every timber in her 
creak. I looked in the main hold, and saw the beams 
giving way ; I hailed those on the ice, and told them of 
our critical situation. I then rushed to my cabin, and 
called to those in their beds to save their lives. On 
reaching the deck, those on the ice called out to me to 
jump over the side — that the ship was going over. I 
jumped on the loose ice, and, with difficulty, and the 
assistance of those on the ice, succeeded in getting on 
the unbroken part. After being on the ice about five 
minutes, the timbers in the ship cracking up as matches 
would in the hand, the nip eased for a short time, and I, 
with some others, returned to the ship, with the view 
of saving some of our effects. Captain Inglefield now 
came running toward the ship. He ordered me to see 
if the ice was through the ship ; and, on looking down 
in the hold, I found all the beams, &c., falling about in 
a manner that would have been certain death to me 
had I ventured down there. It was too evident that 
the ship could not last many minutes. I then sounded 
the well, and found five feet in the hold ; and whilst in 
the act of sounding, a heavier nip than before pressed 
out the starboard-bow, and the ice was forced right into 
the forecastle. Every one then abandoned the ship, 
with what few clothes he could save — some with only 
what they had on. The ship now began to sink fast, 
and from the time her bowsprit touched the ice until 
her mast-heads were out of sight it was not above one 
minute and a half. From the time the first nip took her 
until her disappearance, it was not more than fifteen 
minutes.'* 



DEATH OF BELLOT. 397 

But the saddest episode in Arctic history that Ingle- 
field had to report was the death of Lieut. Bellot, the 
gallant young Frenchman who acted so prominent a 
part in the voyage of the Prince Albert, under Kennedy. 
Bellot's zeal and enthusiasm had led him again into the 
regions of ice and snow, under Inglefield. While there, 
he volunteered to lead a party over the ice, in August, 
1853, to Sir Edward Belcher's squadron, which was at 
that time near Cape Beecher, in Wellington Channel. 
This party consisted of four men — namely, Harvey, 
Johnson, Madden, and Hook. 

On Friday, the 12th of August, he started, with his 
little band, from Beechey Island (at which place the 
North Star was lying), in charge of dispatches from 
Captain Pullen. At this season of the year travelling 
on ice is always considered dangerous, both on account 
of its decayed condition, and its liability to separate 
from the shore and break up. Accordingly, Pullen cau- 
tioned Bellot to keep as close to the eastern shore of 
Wellington Channel as possible, and provided the party 
with one of the light India-rubber boats, which could be 
easily dragged on their sledge, and without which, at 
such a season, it would have been very unsafe to travel. 

That evening they encamped about three miles from 
Cape Innes. Next day they made considerable progress, 
and when night approached made their bed upon the 
broken ice over which they had been plodding during 
the day. This was near Cape Bodwen. On the follow- 
ing day, which was Sunday, they passed a crack about 
four feet wide, running across the channel. During all 
this time no doubts were entertained as to the safe con- 
dition of the ice ; and Bellot, in his usual encouraging 
way, cheered on the men, and put his shoulder to the 
tracking-lines, saying that he wished to get to a cape 
which was seen a good way ahead, and which he called 
34 



398 DEATH OF BELLOT. 

Cape Grinnell. Near this it was desirable to encamp 
in-shore, if possible. 

On arriving at the cape, it was found that there was 
a broad belt of water between the ice and the shore. 
This would have been a matter of little moment, had 
there been no wind, as they could have easily crossed 
it in the boat ; but there was unfortunately a strong 
breeze blowing from the south-east, which curled up the 
surface of the cold black waves in a very ominous way. 
There was no help, however ; so the boat was launched, 
and Bellot endeavored to reach the shore in it alone, 
intending to convey a line by which the remainder of 
the party and the provisions might be dragged over. 
In this attempt he failed, the violence of the gale being 
too much for him ; he therefore returned to the ice, 
and ordered Harvey and Madden to get in and attempt 
the passage together. This they did, and were suc- 
cessful in landing ; after which they began the opera- 
tion of passing and repassing the boat between the ice 
and the shore, by means of lines. In this way three 
loads were landed from the sledge, and the party on the 
ice were hauling the boat off for a fourth, when Mad- 
den, who had hold of the shore-line, and was up to his 
middle in the water, called out suddenly that the ice 
was on the move, and driving off shore. It was evi- 
dent that he could not hold the line longer without 
being dragged into deep water ; so Bellot called out to 
him to let go, which he did. 

Bellot and his two men then hauled the boat on to 
the sledge, and ran it up to the windward side of the 
ice, intending to launch it there and make for the shore. 
Ere this could be accomplished, however, the ice, whose 
motion was rapidly increasing, had drifted so far from 
the shore as to render all idea of reaching it hopeless. 
It may be imagined with what feelings Madden and 



DEATH OF BELLOT. 399 

Harvey now hastened to an eminence, and watched 
their comrades drifting out to sea on a floe of ice, with 
a bitter breeze urging them further and further from 
hope of escape, and deeper among the drifting ice. 
During two hours they sat thus watching them, until at 
last they were lost to view amid the driving snow. 
When last seen, the two men were standing by the 
sledge, and Bellot on the top of a hummock. 

Madden and Harvey now descended to the shore, 
and instantly began their return-journey to the ship. 
They walked round Griffin Bay, with very little provi- 
sions, and reached Cape Bowden, where they remained 
to take some rest. While there, two men were seen 
hastening toward them. To their great surprise and 
joy, these proved to be Johnson and Hook, who had 
almost miraculously escaped from their perilous position 
on the ice ; but their sad countenances too truly told 
that their companion, the brave young Frenchman, was 
gone. 

After getting a little refreshment, the whole party 
now returned to their ship, which they reached in safety, 
though not without much difficulty and severe privation. 
The melancholy fate of poor Bellot cannot be better told 
than by giving it in the words of Johnson, who was 
with him on the ice at the time of his death. " We 
got the provisions on shore," says he, " on Wednesday, 
the nth. After we had done that, there remained on 
the ice Hook, Lieut. Bellot, and myself, having with us 
the sledge. Mackintosh-awning, and little boat. Com- 
menced trying to draw the boat and sledge to the south- 
ward, but found the ice driving so fast that we left the 
sledge and took the boat only ; but the wind was so 
strong at the time that it blew the boat over and over. 
We then took the boat with us, under shelter of a piece 
of ice, and Mr. Bellot and ourselves commenced cutting 



400 DEATH OF BELLOT. 

an ice-house with our knives for shelter. Mr. Bellot sat 
for half an hour in conversation v^ith us, talking on the 
danger of our position. I told him I was not afraid, and 
that the American expedition was driven up and down 
this channel by the ice. He replied, ' I know they 
were ; and when the Lord protects us, not a hair of our 
heads shall be touched.' 

" I then asked Mr. Bellot what time it was. He said, 
' About quarter past eight a. m.' (Thursday, the 18th), 
and then lashed up his books, and said he would go and 
see how the ice was driving. He had only been gone 
about four minutes, when I went round the same hum- 
mock under which we were sheltered to look fojr him, 
but could not see him ; and, on returning to our shelter, 
saw his stick on the opposite side of a crack, about five 
fathoms wide, and the ice all breaking up. I then 
called out ' Mr. Bellot ! ' but no answer — (at this time 
blowing very heavy). After this, I again searched 
round, but could see nothing of him. 

'' I believe that when he got from the shelter the 
wind blew him into the crack, and, his south-wester 
being tied down, he could not rise. Finding there was 
no hope of again seeing Lieut. Bellot, I said to Hook, 
' I 'm not afraid : I know the Lord will always sustain 
us.' We commenced travelling, to try to get to Cape 
De Haven, or Port Phillips ; and, when we got within 
two miles of Cape De Haven, could not get on shore ; 
and returned for this side, endeavoring to get to the 
southward, as the ice was driving to the northward. 
We were that night and the following day in coming 
across, and came into the land on the eastern shore a 
long way to the northward of the place where we were 
driven off. We got into the land at what Lieut. Bellot 
told us was Point Hogarth. 

^' In drifting up the straits towards the Polar Sea, we 



DEATH OF BELLOT. 401 

saw an iceberg lying close to the shore, and found it 
on the ground. We succeeded in getting on it, and 
remained for six hours. I said to David Hook, ' Don't 
be afraid ; we must make a boat of a piece of ice.' 
Accordingly, we got on to a piece passing, and I had a 
paddle belonging to the India-inibber boat. By this 
piece of drift-ice we managed to reach the shore, and 
then proceeded to where the accident happened. 
Eeached it on Friday. Could not find our shipmates, or 
any provisions. Went on for Cape Bowden, and 
reached it on Friday night." 

When the Esquimaux heard of Bellot's death, they 
shed tears, and cried ** Poor Bellot! poor Bellot!'' 
Two years before, he had seen an Esquimaux dragging 
himself painfully over the ice, with a broken leg. To 
call the carpenter, give him directions to make a wooden 
leg for the poor fellow, and to teach him to walk with it, 
were matters of course for the generous young French- 
man ; but they were unusual kindnesses for a white man 
to show to an Esquimaux, and the simple-hearted peo- 
ple remembered it when they cried " Poor Bellot ! " 

Poor Bellot! — his was a brave, a generous, and a 
kindly heart. His talents and energy were deeply 
appreciated by the nation to which he had volunteered 
his services ; and his affectionate, manly disposition 
had endeared him to the comrades with whom he had 
spent so many stormy days and nights in the regions 
of ice and snow. The howling blast of the north, and 
the dark waters of the polar seas, are sweeping over 
his mortal frame ; but an imperishable wreath — a 
tribute of gratitude and affection, twined by the hands 
of France and England — shall rest upon his brow for- 
ever. 

Mr. Bellot is another added to the list of those brave, 
enthusiastic spirits, that have been thus prematurely 
34* 



402 



DEATH OF BELLOT. 



snatched away, and wrapt in the cold embrace of the 
Arctic seas. The English have expressed their sense 
of his services and his virtues by a subscription for his 
family, and for a monument to be erected to his memory 
in Greenwich Hospital. 

Capt. Inglefield, in his steamer the Phoenix, accom- 
panied by the sailing-vessel Talbot, was sent to the 
Arctic regions again in 1864, with dispatches and sup- 
plies for Sir E. Belcher. There we shall hear of hira 
again in the course of our narrative. 




CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE RESOLUTE AND INTREPID. — BESET AGAIN. WINTER IN THE PACK. 

BOTH TESSEI-S ABANDONED. BELCHER'S EXPLORATIONS. REMAINS 

OF STRUCTURES. — ATTEMPT TO REACH BEECHEY ISLAND. — ABANDON- 
MENT OF THE ASSISTANCE AND PIONEER. ALL PARTIES ASSEMBLE AT 

BEECHEY ISLAND. ARRIVAL OF THE PHCENIX AND TALBOT. RETURN 

TO ENGLAND. OUTWARD VOYAGE OF THE PHCENIX. — COLLINSON'S 

VOYAGE. — RAe'S EXPEDITION. RELICS OF FRANKLIN. — ANDERSON'S 

JOURNEY. 

The Resolute and Intrepid, with their inmates, includ- 
ing the sixty men from the Investigator, remained ice- 
bound at Dealy Island during the best part of the 
summer of 1853. At last, on the 18th of August, a 
strong gale blowing off shore broke up the ice. The 
vessels at once got under way ; by night they were at 
sea, and the navigators congratulated themselves that 
they were now fairly making progress towards home. 
But within twenty-four hours they were brought up by 
the pack of Byam Martin Channel ; and there they lay 
watching for an opening to dash across to BathurstLand, 
and run for Beechey Island under its lee. 

Day after day passed. The drifting pack presented 
no available opening. Winter was fast advancing. 
The prospect of escape before another season began to 
look gloomy. Still, the navigators did not abandon 
the hope ; but they occupied themselves in securing 
game, as a provision against the coming winter. This 
they found in abundance, especially musk-oxen ; and 
some ten thousand pounds were obtained and frozen. 
An attempt was finally made to force through the pack f 



404 THE RESOLUTE AND INTREPID. 

but on the 9th of September the vessels became firmly 
imbedded in the newly-formed ice, and, a north-west gale 
forcing the pack upon them, they were fairly beset, and 
obliged to go whither it and Providence listed. 

Two months they were drifting helplessly, amidst 
great perils. Right pleased was Kellett to find that 
after the 12th of November the ships were at rest, 
having reached a point about due east of Winter Harbor, 
Melville Island, in longitude 101° west, — an admirable 
position for an early escape in the ensuing season. 
Here they passed the winter of 1863^, — long months 
of darkness and weariness, but with no worse mishap 
than the loss of one officer, who died on the 14th of 
November. 

The log-book of that winter is a curious record ; the 
ingenuity of the .officer in charge was well tasked to 
make one day differ from another. Each day has the 
first entry for " ship's position '' thus : "In the floe off 
Cape Cockburn ; ^' and the blank for the second entry 
thus: "in the same position." Lectures, theatricals, 
schools, etc., whiled away the time. 

The spring of 1854 arrived. M'Clure and his crew 
started with sledges on the 14th of April for Beechey 
Island, to find a resting-place on board the North Star 
and at the depot. Kellett made arrangements to con- 
tinue the search. While thus engaged, he received a 
letter from Sir Edward Belcher, suggesting that, rather 
than risk the detention of another season, he should 
abandon his ships and meet him (Belcher) at Beechey 
Island before the 26th of August. Kellett remon- 
strated, stating that the vessels were in a favorable 
position for escape ; that they had abundance of pro- 
visions, and that parties concerned in deserting ships 
under such circumstances " would deserve to have the 
jackets taken off their backs." Then came a positive 



REMAINS OF ESQUIMAUX HOUSES. 405 

order from Belcher. Both vessels were to be aban- 
doned. 

Two distant travelling parties were already out on 
searching expeditions. Word was left at a proper point 
for their guidance. Then, having fitted the Intrepid's 
engines so that she could be got under steam in two 
hours, having stored both ships with provisions, and 
made them in every respect " ready for occupation,'' Kel- 
lett ordered the hatches to be calked down, all hands 
looked their last on the Resolute and Intrepid, and on 
the 15th of May, 1854, they started, with sledges, for 
Beechey Island, where their unexpected arrival caused 
much surprise to the officers and crew of the Investi- 
gator, who had preceded them. 

All this time the other division of the squadron, 
consisting of the Assistance and Pioneer, under Sir 
Edward Belcher, which, as we have seen, sailed north 
on the day before Kellett sailed west, namely, on the 
14th of August, 1852, had been engaged in exploring 
Wellington Channel. Having reached latitude Y6° 52', 
and longitude 37° west, the vessels came to anchor 
in a locality near Cape Beecher, which was chosen for 
their winter quarters. Boat and sledge explorations to 
the northward were commenced on the 23d of August. 
On the 25th, when rounding a point where the coast 
suddenly turns to the eastward, the remains of several 
well-built Esquimaux houses were discovered. " They 
were," says Belcher, " not simply circles of small 
stones, but two lines of well-laid wall in excavated 
ground, filled in between by about two feet of fine 
gravel, well paved, and, withal, presenting the appear- 
ance of great care — more, indeed, than I am willing to 
attribute to the rude inhabitants or migratory Esqui- 
maux, Bones of deer, wolves, seals, etc., were numer- 
ous, and coal was found." There is no mention of anv 



406 BELCHER'S EXPEDITION. 

search having been made for a record, though in all 
probability this was not neglected ; yet the absence of 
any cairn would seem to render it unlikely that such a 
document existed. 

The explorations led to the discovery of various lands, 
to the most extensive of which the name of North Corn- 
wall was given, and of several islands washed by a sea 
open to the north, which Belcher regarded as the polar 
basin. The name of Victoria Archipelago was given to 
a group of islands in 78° 10' ; and the easternmost, form- 
ing the channel which communicates with the Polar Sea, 
was named North Kent. 

On the 2d of May, 1853, the north-east division of the 
sledging-parties left the ship, and soon reached the limit 
of their discoveries of the previous year. 

During this journey Belcher pushed toward North 
Cornwall and Jones's Strait ; but was unexpectedly 
stopped beyond Cape Disraeli, about the end of the 
month on which he set out, by the early disruption of 
the ice. 

" The sight which I obtained from this cape," says 
he, '' elevated six hundred and eighty feet above the 
sea, led me to hope for better success due east. On 
that course we proceeded three days on a smooth floe, 
making thirty-six miles, when we reached, on the 18th, 
the entrance of a splendid channel. Fog had for 
some time worried us with indistinct glimpses of the 
approaches ; but, as it now cleared off, and the sun 
enlivened the scene, we were regaled with such a mag- 
nificent view of successive beetling headlands on either 
side of the channel, and extending for about twenty 
miles, that it really became a puzzling matter to find 
names for them. Of one thing I felt quite convinced — 
namely, that we were now really in Jones's Channel. 
The latitude, the direction, the limit in longitude to 



BELCHEE'S EXPEDITION. 407 

which we could see, only required an extension of sixty 
miles to lead to the cairn erected by. Captain Austin's 
party. The roughness of the frozen pack now com- 
pelled us to take to the land, and we advanced easily 
five or six miles, when a further stop to our prog- 
ress was opposed in the shape of an abrupt glacier, 
and the mortifying discovery that its base was washed 
by the sea, while the ofi*-lying pack was rotten and 
tumbling asunder. 

" Not easily daunted, it was determined to try an 
overland route, and avoid this unfortunate hole, as we 
then thought it. Provisions, etc., were strapped on, and 
we soon started to view what we had to contend with 
before deciding on our ultimate mode of action. The 
hills continued increasing in height as we advanced, 
until they reached fifteen hundred feet. We then 
descended and took up another position at nearly tlie 
same height as the last bluff, when we encamped for 
the night. All our hopes were crushed ! Between us 
and the distant bluff" the open sea prevailed on the 
20th of May ! The horizon was streaked with open 
' sailing-ice,' and all communication cut off" for sledges. 
The bluff', distant sixteen miles, was clearly the turn- 
ing-point into Jones's Channel ; no land was visible 
beyond it." 

More than once their hopes were raised, during the 
return-journey, by the discovery of the remains of 
structures that had evidently been made by human 
hands, yet not, apparently, by those of Esquimaux. 
" Our progress was tantalizing, and attended with deep 
interest and excitement. In the first place, I discov- 
ered, on the brow of a mountain about eight hundred 
feet above the sea, what appeared to be a recent and 
a very workmanlike structure. This was a dome, — or 
rather a double cone, or ice-house, — built of very heavy 



408 BELCHER'S EXPEDITION. 

and tabular slabs, which no single person could carry 
It consisted of about forty courses, eight feet in diam- 
eter, and eight feet in depth, when cleared, but only 
five in height from the base of the upper cone as we 
opened it. 

" Most carefully was every stone removed, every 
atom of moss or earth scrutinized ; the stones at the 
bottom also taken up ; but without finding a trace of 
any record, or of the structure having been used by 
any human being. It was filled by drift snow, but did 
not in any respect bear the appearance of having been 
built more than a season. This was named ' Mount 
Discovery.' '' 

A short time afterwards he writes : '' Leaving our 
crew, pretty well fatigued, to pitch the tent and pre- 
pare the customary pemmican meal, I ascended the 
mountain above us, and discovered that we really were 
not far from our old position of last year, on Cape 
Hogarth, and had Cape Majendie and Hamilton Island 
to the west, about twenty miles. 

'' My surprise, however, was checked suddenly by 
two structures rather in European form, and apparently 
graves ; each was similarly constructed, and, like the 
dome, of large selected slabs, having at each end three 
separate stones, laid as we should place head and foot 
stones. So thoroughly satisfied was I that there was 
no delusion, I desisted from disturbing a stone until it 
should be formally done by the party assembled. 

"The evening following — for where the sun is so 
oppressive to the eyes by day we travel by night — we 
ascended the hill, and removed the stones. Not a trace 
of human beings ! '' 

Thus Belcher and his men travelled about during the 
whole season, exploring the coasts around Wellington 
Channel, now on foot, and then in boats, as circum- 



BELCHER'S EXPEDITION. 409 

stances permitted, but without discovering any clue to 
the fate of Sir John Franklin. Belcher differs from 
M'Clure and other explorers in regard to the abundance 
of animal life in Arctic climes. '' By extraordinary good 
fortune/' he says, ''bears might fall in the way of the 
traveller ; but, having killed and eaten his proportion, 
I much doubt if his strength would enable him to drag 
the remains until another piece of similar good fortune 
befell him. The assertion, therefore, of any 'teeming 
or abundance of animal life ' in this north-eastern dis- 
trict, is utterly untenable. '^ 

On his return from this journey, Belcher first learned 
of the safety of Captain M'Clure and his crew in the 
Bay of Mercy. 

The ships were liberated from the ice on the 14th of 
July. Belcher did not persevere in his attempts to 
push further north, notwithstanding his belief in an 
open Polar Sea, but shaped his ,course for Beechey 
Island. Cape Majendie was reached at an early day. 
Some time was then spent in surveying the Bays of 
Baring and Prince Edward, when the further advance 
of the ships was stopped by a solid floe of ice. After 
much warping and blasting to no purpose, in which 
many serious risks were encountered, the vessels were 
beset for a second winter (1853^) at the southern horn 
of Baring's Bay. 

When the spring came, Sir Edward's whole thoughts 
seem to have been turned towards getting himself and 
crews safe back to England. He determined, ^t all 
events, that they should not remain another winter in 
the ice. With this view, he sent the order to Captain 
Kellett, which we have related, and proceeded to manage 
his own vessels in a similar spirit. 

On the 6th of August, 1854, the Assistance and 
Pioneer broke out of their winter quarters, and advanced 
35 



410 INGLEFIELD'S VOYAGE. 

slowly down the channel. The ice in Barrow's Strait 
broke up at the same time, and by the 22d the floe of 
Wellington Channel was open for fifteen miles north of 
the strait. A belt of ice, only twenty miles in extent, 
and that much cracked, was all that remained between 
the ships and the waters communicating with the 
Atlantic ; yet it was determined to abandon- the vessels, 
and, on the 26th of August, 1854, both the Assistance 
and Pioneer were deserted, and the crews made their 
way to Beechey Island. 

Kellett and M'Clure, with the men under their com- 
mand, were there awaiting them. The searching parties 
had come in during the summer, and, on the 12th of 
June, Lieutenant Mecham had brought from Princess 
Royal Island news of the Enterprise, the first that had 
been heard from her since 1851. He had found records 
left by Collinson, as late as August, 1852, in which the 
latter announced his intention to follow the channel 
between Wollaston and Prince Albert's Land. Kellett 
was in favor of remaining and sending parties to his 
relief ; but Belcher was bent on going home. All the 
officers and men of the Assistance, Pioneer, Resolute, 
Intrepid, and Investigator, accordingly got on board 
the North Star, and had just made sail when the Phoenix 
and Talbot, under Inglefield, hove in sight, rounding 
Cape Riley. A distribution of the crews was made 
among the three vessels. On the 6th of September they 
reached Disco, and on the 28th of September, 1854, 
were all safely landed in England. 

The outward voyage of Inglefield on this occasion 
seems to have had its full share of dangers. After 
safely crossing the Atlantic in his steamer, the Phoenix, 
accompanied by the sailing vessel Talbot, he proceeded 
up Baffin's. Bay, speaking some whalers by the way, 
and touching at Lievely for coal, which is abundant in 



INGLEFIELD'S VOYAGE. 411 

these regions. Ice soon began to retard them, but 
they were enabled to break through it much more easily 
than were the navigators of former years, in conse- 
quence of the power of steam, which has greatly altered 
the mode of progression even in the regions of the 
north, not only by enabling the vessels to wend their 
way among loose ice in calm weather, but by giving 
them the power of charging the opposing masses under 
full steam, and so smashing a passage in places where, 
formerly, the unwieldy sailing-ship would have been 
detained for weeks, and perhaps set fast for the winter. 

"For ten days," says Inglefield, ''we pushed on 
through heavy ice, blasting, boring, charging the nips, 
and making but slow advance, the bay-ice, forming 
strong every night, much retarding our progress ; and, 
on the ITth of August, we were closely beset at the 
edge of a large floe some mile^ in extent. Luckily, a 
strong gale from the westward broke up the edges of 
this floe, and, on the weather moderating, slacked the 
ice sufficiently to admit of our pushing through, and on 
the 19th we were fortunate enough to get into the west 
water. '^ 

After this he proceeded to Wollaston Island, where 
he found that a depot of provisions had been discovered 
by the Esquimaux, and almost entirely broken up. 
''Deeming it beneficial for the service upon which I 
was employed, and acting under the discretionary orders 
with which their lordships have been pleased to supply 
me, I determined upon examining the depot near Wollas- 
ton Island, deposited by the North Star, in 1850. For 
that purpose I made the south shore of Lancaster Sound, 
and, on the 21st, about 8.30 p. m., we passed near 
enough to Cape Hay to observe the coals deposited 
there, in 1849, by Captain Parker, of the Truelove. Ob- 
serving that the stafi' and two casks containing letters 



412 INGLEFIELD'S VOYAGE. 

and provisions were missing, I landed, and found that 
no trace remained of these but a portion of the head of 
one of them, and some broken preserved meat-tins. 
The coals, too, had been either carried away by the 
Esquimaux or the ice, there being only twenty-one bags. 
A little after ten we rounded Cape Castlereagh, and 
soon found the remains of the North Star's depot. 
Anchoring in five fathoms, we lashed the Talbot along- 
side, and on landing I found that this spot had also 
been visited by the Esquimaux. They had not only 
plundered it of all that was useful to them, but had 
showed a reckless wantonness in the destruction of 
every remaining article. 

"Of the six hundred and eight casks and cases that 
were landed by Mr. Saunders, only one hundred and 
fourteen remained ; and each had been stove for the 
examination of their contents, which consisted of flour, 
peas, Scotch barley, oat-meal, and tobacco. Finding 
the flour only partially destroyed in each cask, I deter- 
mined on embarking all that still remained ; and the 
whole was shipped off" to the Phoenix, with ten tons of 
patent fuel, which latter I did not hesitate to embark, 
as Sir Edward Belcher had sent a vessel two years before 
to examine this depot, and directed her commander to 
take the whole of the coal from the neighboring point." 

From this point, the Phoenix and Talbot sailed to 
Cape Warrender, at which place they were very nearly 
lost. Captain Inglefield went ashore to examine a cairn 
that he had erected there the previous year. Returning 
on board, he found a strong westerly breeze with ebb- 
tide, which prevented much headway being made ; so 
they returned to seek anchorage for the night in Dundas 
Harbor. ''Unfortunately," says Inglefield, ''when pick- 
ing up a berth, we struck soundings in fifteen fathoms, 
and, immediately after three, both ships grounded on a 



CAPTAIN COLLINSON. 418 

mud bank, and, the tide falling, every exertion to get 
the Phoenix afloat proved useless, though the Talbot 
was warped ofi' into deep water, where, both her bower 
anchors being let go, the chain of the small one was 
passed into the Phoenix's quarter hawse-hole, and a 
heavy strain brought upon it. At three the following 
morning the strong breeze broke the ice away from the 
head of the bay, and, driving out, took the Phoenix on 
her starboard broadside, and laid her over on her beam 
ends, forcing her still further on shore, and tearing off 
the whole of the false keel. The Talbot, though pushed 
again on the bank, escaped any damage from the ice, 
being sheltered by this vessel, which was to windward 
of her. The day flood proving only a half-tid^, we 
remained immovably fixed until the evening, by which 
time all the boats of both vessels had been laden with 
heavy stores to lighten this vessel ; and I am happy to 
say that, about 11 p. m., both ships floated off into deep 
water, with no other damage than I have stated." 

Having now disposed of all the searching expeditions 
on the Baffin's Bay side of the continent, excepting only 
that of Dr. Kane, to which we shall devote a separate 
chapter, it remains for us to complete the history of 
the other expeditions that proceeded by way of Behring's 
Strait. To connect the thread of our narrative, we must 
remind the reader that we left her majesty's ship Enter- 
prise, Captain Collinson, consort of the Investigator, in 
the Pacific Ocean. She reached the latitude of Icy 
Cape, September 22d, 1850 ; when, meeting the pack- 
ice, she went south for a warmer climate, so as to be 
ready to resume operations in the season of 1851. All 
that Collinson knew of the position of M'Clure was a 
report from the Plover that the Investigator had been 
seen, under a press of canvas, steering northward, off 
Wainwright Inlet. Unfortunately, one of the rumors 
35^ 



414 LIEUTENANT BARNARD'S MURDER. 

connecled with this report induced Colliuson to allow 
an enterprising young officer, Lieutenant Barnard, to 
be landed in the Russian north-west American settle- 
ments, in order to inquire into the truth. In carrying 
out this service, Barnard was brutally murdered, in 
February, 1851, by Indians, in a surprise of one of the 
Russian posts, called Darabin redoubt, not far from 
Norton Sound. The sad catastrophe is briefly told in 
the handwriting of poor Barnard, in the annexed note 
to Dr. Adams : 

'' Deak Adams : I am dreadfully wounded in the abdomen ; my 
entrails are hanging out. I do not suppose I shall live long enough to 
see you. The Cu-u-chuc Indians made the attack while we were in our 
beds. Boskey is badly wounded, and Darabin is dead. 

" I think my wound would have been trifling had I had medical advice. 
I am in great pain. Nearly all the natives of the village are murdered. 
Set out for this place in all haste. John Barnard." 

The hand-writing of this note betrayed the anguish 
which the gallant writer was suffering, and parts of it 
were nearly illegible. 

On the 29th of July, 1851, Collinson, in the Enter- 
prise, rounded Point Barrow, steered up Prince of 
Wales Strait, and here, on Princess Royal Island, dis- 
covered the Investigator's dep6t, and a cairn containing 
information up to June 15th, 1851. Passing on, the 
Enterprise, on the 30th of August, reached the north 
end of the strait, but only to be foiled in any attempt to 
pass beyond it. Collinson now decided on taking a 
course exactly similar to that of his more fortunate pre- 
decessor, M'Clure ; but, on the 3d of September, little 
thinking that the Investigator had preceded him in his 
intended course, he found, to his surprise, on Cape 
Kellett, a record placed there on August 18th. The ice 
was now too close for him to push on ; and, no harbor 
fit for winter quarters offering itself as high as latitude 



RETUEN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 415 

T2* 54' north, Collinson bore up, and eventually wintered 
his ship on the eastern side of the entrance of Prince of 
Wales Strait. Thence he pursued his explorations in 
the neighborhood of Banks's Land, Albert Land, Wol- 
laston Land, and Victoria Land, concerning the geogra- 
phy of which he obtained much valuable information. 
At Cambridge Bay, in WoUaston Land, where the 
Enterprise passed the winter of 1852-3, he saw in the 
possession of the Esquimaux a piece of iron and frag- 
ment of a doorway, or hatch-frame, which it is thought 
must have belonged to the Erebus or Terror ; but this 
trace led to no further discoveries, nor was anything 
ascertained in regard to the fate of Sir John Franklin. 

The Enterprise was absent longer than any of the 
other searching expeditions, and was equally distin- 
guished by the ability, heroism, and endurance, displayed 
by her officers and crew ; but, as their adventures are 
similar to those already related, we do not think it 
necessary to give them in more detail. Long after the 
people of England were assured of the safety of M'Clure, 
they continued to feel anxiety regarding the fate of 
Collinson. But the latter had the good fortune to 
retrace his steps by the way he came, and brought his 
ship and crew safely back to England. In the mean 
time, the Plover, the other vessel of the Pacific squadron, 
had also reached home in safety. Mr. Kennedy, in the 
Isabel, who sailed in 1853 to carry assistance to Collin- 
son, was shipwrecked on the coast of South America, 
where his crew having mutinied and deserted, his voyage 
was abandoned. 

Shortly after the return of Belcher and M'Clure, with 
the crews of their deserted ships, another note of inform- 
ation was sounded from the Arctic regions, but its 
tone was very sad. The 3Iontreal Herald of October 
21st, 1854, published a letter from Dr. Rae to the gov- 



41t) DR. RAE'S DISCOVERY. 

ernor of the Hudson's Bay Company, giving an account 
of the exploration from which he had just returned. 
From this letter, which was dated York Factory, 4th 
August, 1854, it appeared that Eae reached his old 
quarters, at Kepulse Bay, on the 15th of August, 1853, 
and there passed the ensuing winter. On the 81st of 
March, 1854, his spring journey commenced. On the 
l^th he reached Pelly Bay, where he met Esquimaux, 
from whom he obtained several articles which were 
identified as belonging to various members of Sir John 
Franklin's party. 

The possession of these articles by the Esquimaux 
was accounted for by a story which is related in the 
following extract from Dr. Kae's journal, published soon 
after his arrival in England : ''On the morning of the 
20th we were met by a very intelligent Esquimaux, 
driving a dog-sledge laden with musk-ox beef. This 
man at once consented to accompany us two days' 
journey, and in a few minutes had deposited his load 
on the snow, and was ready to join us. Having ex- 
plained to him my object, he said that the road by 
which he had come was the best for us ; and, having 
lightened the men's sledges, we travelled with more 
facility. We were now joined by another of the natives, 
who had been absent seal-hunting yesterday, but, beiug 
anxious to see us, had visited our snow-house early this 
morning, and then followed up our track. This man 
was very communicative, and, on putting to him the 
usual questions as to his having seen ' white man ' be- 
fore, or any ships or boats, he replied in the negative ; 
but said that a party of ' Kabloomans ' had died of 
starvation a long distance to the west of where we then 
were, and beyond a large river. He stated that he did 
not know the exact place, that he never had been, there, 
and that he could not accompany us so far. The sub- 



RAE'S DISCOVERY. 417 

stance of the information then and subsequently obtained 
from various sources was to the following effect : 

'' In the spring, four winters past (1850), while some 
Esquimaux families were killing seals near the north 
shore of a large island, named in Arrowsmith's charts 
King William's Land, about forty white men were seen 
travelling in company southward over the ice, and drag- 
ging a boat and sledges with them. They were passing 
along the west shore of the above-named island. None 
of the party could speak the Esquimaux language so 
well as to be understood, but by signs the natives were 
led to believe that the ship or ships had been crushed 
by ice, and that they were now going to where they ex- 
pected to find deer to shoot. From the appearance of 
the men — all of whom, with the exception of an officer, 
were hauling on the drag-ropes of the sledge, and looked 
thin — they were then supposed to be getting short of 
provisions ; and they purchased a small seal, or piece of 
seal, from the natives. The officer was described as 
being a tall, stout, middle-aged man. When their day's 
journey terminated, they pitched tents to rest in. 

" At a later date the same season, but previous to the 
disruption of the ice, the corpses of some thirty persons 
and some graves were discovered on the continent, and 
five dead bodies on an island near it, about a long day's 
journey to the north-west of the mouth of a large stream, 
which can be no other than Back's Great Fish Eiver 
(named by the Esquimaux Oot-koo-hi-ca-lik), as its de- 
scription and that of the low shore in the neighborhood 
of Point Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with 
that of Sir George Back. Some of the bodies were in 
a tent, or tents ; others were under the boat, which had 
been turned over to form a shelter ; and some lay scat- 
tered about in different directions. Of those seen on 
the island, it was supposed that one was that of an officer 



418 EELICS OF FRANKLIN. 

(chief), as he had a telescope strapped over his shoul- 
ders, and a double-barrelled gun lay underneath him. 

''From the mutilated state of many of the bodies, 
and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our 
wretched countrymen had been driven to the dread 
alternative of cannibalism as a means of sustaining life. 
A few of the unfortunate men must have survived until 
the arrival of the wild-fowl (say until the end of May), 
as shots were heard, and fresh bones and feathers of 
geese were noticed near the scene of the sad event. 

" There appears to have been an abundant store of 
ammunition, as the gunpowder was emptied by the 
natives in a heap on the ground out of the kegs or cases 
containing it, and a quantity of shot and ball was found 
below high-water mark, having probably been left on 
the ice close to the beach before the spring commenced. 
There must have been a number of telescopes, guns 
(several of them double-barrelled), watches, compasses, 
&c., all of which seem to have been broken up, as I 
saw pieces of these different articles with the natives, 
and I purchased as many as possible, together with 
some silver spoons and forks, an Order of Merit in the 
form of a star, and a small silver plate engraved ' Sir 
John Franklin, K.C.B.' " 

Dr. Rae concludes by expressing the opinion that no 
violence had been offered to the sufferers by the natives, 
but that they were starved to death. The following is 
a list of the articles obtained from the Esquimaux : 
One silver table-fork — crest, an animal's head with 
wings extended above ; three silver table-forks — crest, 
a bird with wings extended ; one silver table-spoon — 
crest, with initials " F. R. M. C' (Captain Crozier, Ter- 
ror) ; one silver table-spoon and one fork — crest, bird 
with laurel-branch in mouth, motto, " Spero meliora;^^ 
one silver table-spoon, one tea-spoon, and one dessert- 



RAE'S LETTER TO THE TIMES. 419 

fork — crest, a fishes head looking upwards, with laurel- 
branches on each side ; one silver table-fork — initials, 
" H. D. S. Gr." (Harry D. S. Goodsir, assistant-surgeon, 
Erebus) ; one silver table-fork — initials, "A. M'D/^ 
(Alexander M'Donald, assistant-surgeon, Terror) ; one 
silver table-fork — initials, " G. A. M." (Gillies A.Mac- 
bean, second master. Terror) ; one silver table-fork — 
initials, "J. T. ; '' one silver dessert-spoon — initials, 
*' J. S. P.'^ (John S. Peddie, surgeon, Erebus) ; around 
silver plate, engraved, ''Sir John Franklin, K.C.B.;" a 
star or order, with motto, " Nee aspera terrent, G. R. III. 
MDCCCXV.'' 

On obtaining the above information. Dr. Rae instantly 
hastened to England, for the purpose of preventing any 
further expeditions being despatched in search of the 
lost navigators. His report, as might have been ex- 
pected, was subjected on all hands to criticism and com- 
ment. Many were of opinion that the information ob- 
tained did not warrant the conclusion that the whole 
party was lost. Some of the criticisms made on his 
report induced Dr. Rae to take up the pen in self-defence ; 
and in a letter which he addressed to the editor of the 
London Times we find the following remarks, which 
come with great weight from one who, of all others, is 
most competent to speak authoritatively. They were 
written in reply to an attack made upon him by a gen- 
tleman who had a relative with the lost expedition, and 
serve to show>*how difficult it is to form a correct judg- 
ment on subjects ' of which we have not had personal 
experience. 

"It is asked by your correspondent,'' says Dr. Rae, 
" ' where Esquimaux can live, where Dr. Rae's party 
could find abundant means, what should prevent Sir 
John Franklin and his party from subsisting too ? ' 

" No man but one perfectly unacquainted with the 



420 RAE'S LETTER TO THE TIMES. 

subject could ask such a question. At the season when 
Sir John Franklin's party was seen travelling over the 
ice, the seal-holes are covered by snow, and can only be 
discovered by the acute sense of smell of the native 
dogs ; and; after the seal-hole is discovered, much pa- 
tience, experience, and care, are requisite to kill the seal. 
As soon as the snow thaws (say in June) the seals 
show themselves on the ice ; but they are then so dif- 
ficult of approach that not one of my men (Ouligbuck, 
the interpreter, excepted), although they often made 
the attempt, could approach near enough to shoot any 
of these animals. 

''I wintered at a part of the Arctic coast remarkable 
by its geographical formation for the abundance of deer 
during the autumn migrations, but only then ; and it 
was at that time that we laid up our winter stock of 
food ; but it was hard work even for us (all practised 
sportsmen, picked men, and in full strength and train- 
ing) to collect a sufficiency. 

"That portion of country near to and on which a 
portion of Sir John Franklin's party was seen is, in the 
spring, notoriously the most barren of animal life of any 
of the Arctic shores ; and the few deer that may be seen 
are generally very shy, from having been hunted during 
the winter by Indians, on the borders of the woodlands. 
To prove this scarcity of game, I may add, that during 
my spring journey of fifty-six days' duration, one deer 
only and a few partridges were shot by ug. 

''It is asked by your correspondent, ' Why the un- 
fortunate men should have encumbered themselves with 
silver forks and spoons and silver plates ? ' &c. The 
total weight of the silver forks and spoons could not be 
more than four or five pounds at the utmost, and would 
not appear much when divided among forty persons ; 
and any officer who has ever had the misfortune to 



RAE'S LETTER TO THE TIMES. 421 

abandon his ship or boat anywhere, but more particu- 
larly in the Arctic sea, knows how apt men are to en- 
cumber themselves with articles far more useless and 
bulky than a few forks and spoons. I suppose, by ' sil- 
ver plates,' your correspondent alludes to the silver 
plate with Sir John Franklin's name engraved thereon, 
and which may possibly weigh half an ounce, — no great 
addition to a man's load. 

'' Again, your correspondent says, ' that the ships 
have been abandoned, and pillaged by the Esquimaux.' 
In this opinion I perfectly agree so far as regards the 
abandonment of the ships, but not that these ships were 
pillaged by the natives. Had this been the case, wood 
would have been abundant among these poor people. 
It was not so, and they were reduced to the necessity 
of making their sledges of musk-ox skins folded up 
and frozen together, — an alternative to which the want 
of wood alone could have reduced them. Another 
proof that the natives had very little wood among them 
may be adduced. Before leaving Kepulse Bay, I col- 
lected together some of the most respectable of the 
old Esquimaux, and distributed among them all the 
wood we could spare, amounting to two or three oars 
and some broken poles. When these things were de- 
livered to them, I bade the Esquimaux interpreter, who 
speaks both his own and the English language fluently, 
to ask whether they or their acquaintances near Felly 
Bay had now most wood. They all immediately shouted 
out, holding up their hands, that they themselves had 
most. I need scarcely add that, had the ships been 
found by the Esquimaux, a stock of wood sufficient for 
many years for all the natives within an extent of 
several hundred miles would have been obtained." 

From all this it will be seen that the evidence of Dr. 
Rae went to show that the fate of thirty-five men of the 
36 



422 ANDERSON'S JOURNEY. 

expedition had been but too surely ascertained ; but 
there were yet one hundred and three to be accounted 
for. No one, familiar with the history of Arctic dis- 
covery, could entertain much hope of ever seeing the 
gallant crews of the Erebus and Terror alive ; but there 
was every reason to believe that the trail had been at 
last struck, and that in a short time we should have the 
melancholy satisfaction of at least knowing how, when, 
and where, they perished. For the purpose of ascer- 
taining this, of obtaining the papers of the lost ships, 
and of burying the remains of their crews, if they should 
be found, the British government resolved to send out 
a land expedition to follow up the search of Dr. Eae. 

A party was accordingly organized in the summer of 
1855, and placed under the command of Mr. James 
Anderson, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company ; 
Dr. Eae, to whom the command was first offered, hav- 
ing declined it, on account of ill-health. Anderson's 
expedition started fi:om Fort Resolution on the 22d of 
June, 1855, and commenced the descent of the Great 
Fish River in three canoes. They were unaccompanied 
by any interpreter. On the 30th of July, at the rapids 
below Lake Franklin, three Esquimaux lodges were 
seen, and numerous articles, belonging to a boat-equi- 
page, were there found — such as tent-poles, paddles, 
copper and sheet-iron boilers, tin soup-tureens, chis- 
els, and tools of various kinds. The occupants of the 
lodges, all but one of whom were women, said (by 
words and signs) that these things were obtained from 
a boat, and that the white men belonging to it had 
died of starvation. 

Pushing on again, the party reached Point Beaufort, 
and at last Montreal Island. There they found some 
chain-hooks, tools, rope, bunting, and a number of 
sticks strung together on one of which was cut tho 



ANDERSON'S JOURNEY. 423 

name of " Mr. Stanley '' (surgeon of the Erebus) ; also 
chips, shavings, ends of plank, etc., apparently sawed 
by unskilful hands. On one the word "Terror'' was 
carved. It was evident to Mr. Anderson that this was 
the spot where the boat was cut up by the Esquimaux ; 
but not a vestige of human remains could be discov- 
ered, or a scrap of paper. Point Ogle was next exam- 
ined, and small articles of a similar character were also 
found there ; but with no other result. 

On the 8th of August, 1855, the party began to re- 
trace their steps, having seen no Esquimaux, except the 
few at the rapids before mentioned, and having been 
unable to reach King William's Land. 

This information was received in England early in 
1856, and is confirmatory of Eae's supposition that the 
Great Fish was the river on which the party he heard 
of had retreated ; but, so far as the particulars of their 
fate is concerned, it leaves the whole matter as much 
involved in mystery as ever. 




,'''•■' kZ^„., 



CHAPTER XIX. 

SECOND GRINNELIi EXPEDITION. DR. KANE'S PLAN. — DEPARTURE. IN 

THE ICE. SEARCH FOR A HARBOR. FROZEN IN. — TEMPERATURE. 

INCIDENTS. LOSS OF DOGS. DISASTROUS SLEDGING-PARTY. THE 

RESCUE. MEETING "WITH ESQUIMAUX. — DISCOVERIES. ATTEMPT TO 

REACH belcher's SQUADRON. ANOTHER WINTER. PRIVATION AND 

PERIL. — ABANDONMENT OF THE VESSEL. FAREWELL TO THE ESQUI- 
MAUX. IN SAFETY. REPORT TO NAVY DEPARTMENT. THE OPEN 

POLAR SEA. — CHARACTER OF DR. KANE'S ADVENTURES. HIS PUBLISHED 

NARRATIVE. 

The expedition under the command of Dr. Kane 
sailed from New York on the 30th of May, 1853. It 
consisted of eighteen chosen men, besides the com- 
mander, embarked in a small brig of one hundred and 
forty-four tons burden, named the Advance, which was 
furnished by Mr. Grinnell, other expenses being con- 
tributed by Mr. Peabody and several generous indi- 
viduals and societies. Dr. Kane's predetermined course 
was to enter the strait discovered the previous year 
by Captain Inglefield, at the top of Baffin's Bay, and 
to push as far northward through it as practicable. He 
engaged the services of a native Esquimaux, of the 
name of Hans Christensen, at Fiskernaes, in Greenland, 
and then crossed Melville Bay in the wake of the vast 
icebergs with which the sea is there strewn. These 
huge frozen masses are often driven one way by a deep 
current, while the floes are drifted in another by winds 
and surface-streams, disruptions being thus necessarily 
caused in the vast ice-fields. The doctor's tactics were 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 425 

to dodge about in the rear of these floating ice-moun- 
tains, holding upon them whenever adverse winds were 
troublesome, and pressing forward whenever an oppor- 
tunity occurred. 

Dr. Kane's plan was based upon the probable exten- 
sion of the land-masses of Greenland to the far north — 
a fact at that time not verified by travel, but sustained 
by the analogies of physical geography. Greenland, 
though looked upon as a congeries of islands connected 
by interior glaciers, was still regarded as a peninsula, 
whose formation recognized the same laws as other 
peninsulas having a southern trend. 

Believing in the extension of this peninsula nearer to 
the pole than any other known land, and feeling that 
the search for Sir John Franklin would be best promoted 
by a course that might lead most directly to the sup- 
posed northerly open sea, Dr. Kane advanced, as in- 
ducements in favor of his scheme : Terra Firma as the 
basis of his operations ; a due northern line which would 
lead soonest to the open sea ; the benefit of northern 
land to check the southern drift of ice ; the presumed 
existence of animal life ; and the cooperation of Esqui- 
maux, whose settlements were supposed to extend far up 
the coast. 

The good ship Advance entered the harbor of Fisker- 
naes, on the 1st of July, " amid the clamor of its entire 
population assembled on the rocks to greet us.'' On the 
16th of July she passed the promontory of Swartehuk, 
or Blackhead ; and, on the 2tth, Wilcox Point ; icebergs 
showing themselves on all sides, and rendering the nav- 
igation of Melville Bay full of danger. On the 2d of 
August they were fairly in the ice, and beset by fogs. 
It was only at times that the floes opened sufficiently 
to allow the ship to make her way through them. At 
midnight of the 3d, however, they got clear of the bay 
36* 



426 r>R. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

aud of its difficulties, Dr. Kane taking credit to himself 
for having effected this by an outside passage. 

The North Water, the highway to Smith's Sound, 
was now fairly before them. On the 5th they passed 
Sir John Ross's " Crimson Cliffs," and the patches of 
red snow could be seen clearly at the distance of ten 
miles from the coast ; and on the 1th. they doubled Cape 
Alexander — the Arctic pillars of Hercules — and 
passed into Smith's Sound. Arriving at Littleton 
Island, they deposited there a boat with a supply of 
stores, not far from the vestiges of an old Esquimaux 
settlement. 

On the 8th they again closed with the ice, and were 
forced into a land-locked cove. The dogs, of which 
they had more than fifty on board, began to be very 
troublesome ; they would devour almost everything that 
came in their way, from an Esquimaux cranium to a 
whole feather-bed ! The men tried to shoot some wal- 
ruses, but the rifle-balls rebounded from their hides like 
pebbles ; and it was only by accident that they found 
the carcass of a narwhal, with which to appease the 
poor dogs for a time. 

All attempts to work the vessel seaward through the 
floes proving unsuccessful, it was resolved to try for a fur- 
ther northing by following the coast-line. But, although 
even warping was had recourse to, this also was followed 
by but very trifling success. On midnight of the 14th 
they reached the lee side of a rocky island, which, from 
the shelter it aflbrded, was designated " Godsend Ledge." 
It was, however, destined to be so but a short time. 
On the" 20th it came on to blow a hurricane ; the haw- 
sers parted one after the other, and the ship was left at 
the mercy of the winds, waves, and ice, combined. It 
was a most trying time, and the party underwent many 
perils ere they found temporary shelter beyond a lofty 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 



427 



cape, and under an iceberg that anchored itself between 
them and the gale. 

The point to which they were thus unceremoniously 
driven was ten miles nearer the pole than Godsend 
Ledge ; and on the 22d, the storm having abated, the 
men were harnessed to the tow-lines, and they began to 
track along the ice-belt off the coast, warping also at 




TRACKING ALONG THE ICE-BELT. 

times, but with so little effect that, on the 29th, Dr. 
Kane rushed on ahead with a small boating-party for a 
personal inspection of the coast. After twenty-four 
hours' toil, the boat had to be exchanged for a sledge, 
with which they also got on but slowly, passing Glacier 
Bay, Mary Minturn River, — the largest known in 
North Greenland, being about three fourths of a mile 
wide at its mouth — Capes Thackeray and Francis 
Hawkes, to Cape George Russell, from whence could be 
seen the great glacier of Humboldt, Cape Jackson on 
the one side, and Cape Barrow on the other, and be- 
tween them a solid sea of ice. 

The gallant captain returned satisfied that he had 
seen no place combining so many of the requisites of a 
good winter harbor as the bay in which he had left the 
Advance. So he gave the orders to warp in between 
two islands. They found seven fathom soundings, and 



428 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

a perfect shelter from the outside ice ; and thus the lit- 
tle brig was laid up in Yan Rensselaer Harbor, near a 
group of rocky islets, in the south-eastern curve of a 
bay, where she was frozen in on September 10th. 

An observatory was erected adjacent to the ship, and 
a thermal register was kept hourly. The mean annual 
temperature at this spot appears to be two degrees 
lower than that of Melville Island, according to Parry. 
The lowest temperature was observed in February, when 
the mean of eight instruments gave seventy degrees 
Fahrenheit. Chloroform froze, essential oils became 
partly solid and liquid, and, on February 24th, chloric 
ether was congealed for the first time by natural tem- 
perature. For astronomical observations, a transit and 
theodolite were mounted on stone pedestals, cemented 
by ice. The longitude was based on moon culminations, 
corroborated by occultations of planets, and the solar 
eclipse of May, 1855. The position of the observatory 
was found to be in lat. T8° 31', and long. 10° 40' 6". 
Magnetic observations, both absolute and relative, were 
also kept up. 

An excursion was made ninety miles into the interior, 
when its further progress was arrested by a glacier four 
hundred feet high, and extending north and west as far 
as the eye could reach. As to the sledging outfit, they 
kept on reducing it, until at last they came to the Esqui- 
maux ultimatum of simplicity — raw meat and a fur 
bag. For the time being, a man thus becomes a mere 
animal, only with another animal's skin for a cover. 

Parties were organized for establishing provision 
dep6ts to facilitate researches in the spring, and more 
than eight hundred miles were traversed. The Green- 
land coast was traced for one hundred and twenty-five 
miles to the north and east, and the largest of the three 
depots along the coast was formed on an island in lat. 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 429 

10° 12' 6", and long. 65° 25'. Darkness arrested these 
proceedings on November 20th, and the sun continued 
one hundred and twenty days below the horizon. 

One of the first incidents that occurred was setting 
the ship on fire in an attempt to exterminate the rats 
with carbonic-acid gas. It ended in nearly asphyxiating 
the commander and two or three others. The next inci- 
dent was one of the dogs going rabid — a phenomenon 
usually supposed to be associated with the heats of 
summer. Great inconvenience was experienced in the 
sledge-excursions, and in making " caches " of provi- 
sions in this region, from the frequent ice-cracks, or cre- 
vasses, as the Swiss would call them, and into which 
dogs, sledges, and travellers, were sometimes tumbled, at 
the imminent risk of being carried beloAv the ice by the 
current — not to mention the danger to health of an im- 
mersion with the thermometer many degrees below zero. 

The point at which the party were wintering, it is to 
be observed, was in a higher latitude than the wintering- 
stations in the Arctic archipelago ; and, except on Spitz- 
bergen, no Christians are known to have passed a win- 
ter so near to the pole. The darkness was so intense 
that it necessarily entailed inaction ; and it was in vain 
that they sought to create topics of thought, and, by a 
forced excitement, to ward off the encroachments of dis- 
ease. The thermometer fell to ninety-nine degrees below 
freezing point. Human beings could only breathe in 
such a temperature guardedly, and with compressed lips. 

The influence of such severe cold and long intense 
darkness was most depressing. Most of the dogs died 
of affections of the brain, which began, as in the in- 
stance of some of the men of the Investigator, with fits, 
followed by lunacy, and sometimes by lock-jaw. Their 
disease, Dr. Kane remarks, was as clearly mental as in 
the case of any human being. Fifty-seven died with 



430 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

these symptoms. The loss of his dogs seriously affected 
Dr. Kane's plans ; new arrangements had to be formed, 
which, owing to the smallness of the party, deprived 




BOG-SLEDGE. 

of the dogs, were necessarily restricted. The addition 
of four dogs, contributed by Esquimaux, permitted 
the operations to be considerably extended. Out of 
nearly three thousand miles traversed, no less than 
eleven hundred were made with the dog-sledge ; and 
during the following year Dr. Kane himself travelled 
fourteen hundred miles with a single team. 

The month of March brought back perpetual day. The 
sunshine had reached the ship on the last day of Febru- 
ary ; they needed it to cheer them. The scurvy spots 
that mottled the faces of almost all gave sore proof of 
the trials they had undergone. The crew were now 
(March, 1854) almost unfitted by debility for arduous 
work, and only six dogs remained of nine splendid New- 
foundlanders and thirty-five Esquimaux dogs. " An Arc- 
tic night and an Arctic day,'^ Dr. Kane emphatically re- 
marks, " age a man more rapidly and harshly than a year 
anywhere else in all this weary world.'' Sometimes, in 
their excursions over the ice, the men had to drag the 
sledge, and flounder through snow-drifts in which they 
sank at every step nearly over their legs. 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 



431 




SLEDGE -PARTY. 



In order to ascertain whether it were practicable to 
force a way over the crowded bergs and mountainous 
ice of the frozen area toward the north, Dr. Kane now 
organized a party of the strongest men, who volunteered 
their services for the labor, placing himself at their head ; 
and, on the 19th of March, sent out an advanced corps 
to place a relief cargo of provisions at a suitable dis- 
tance from the brig. On the ninth day of their absence 
the latter encountered a heavy gale from the north-east ; 
the thermometer fell to fifty-seven degrees below zero, 
and the ice-ridges became so obstructed by snow as to 
prevent their depositing their stores beyond fifty miles 
from the brig. 

By the 31st three of the members of this advance 
party returned to the brig, swollen, haggard, and hardly 
able to speak. They had left four of their number in a 
tent on the ice, frozen and disabled. On being informed 
of the disaster. Dr. Kane started for the rescue with 
nine men, under the direction of Mr. Ohlsen, one of the 
returned party, whose previous exposure, however, had 
rendered his services as a guide almost useless. We 
will here quote the commander's own graphic words : 

" We had been nearly eighteen hours out without 



432 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

water or food, when a new hope cheered us. I think 
it was Hans, our Esquimaux hunter, who thought he 
saw a broad sledge-track. The drift had nearly effaced 
it, and we were some of us doubtful at first whether it 
was not one of those accidental rifts which the gales 
make in the surface-snow. But, as we traced it on to 
the deep snow among the hummocks, we were led to 
footsteps ; and, following these with religious care, we 
at last came in sight of a small American flag fluttering 
from a hummock, and lower down a little Masonic ban- 
ner hanging from a tent-pole hardly above the drift. It 
was the camp of our disabled comrades : we reached it 
after an unbroken march of twenty-one hours. 

" The little tent was nearly covered. I was not 
among the first to come up ; but, when I reached the 
tent-curtain, the men were standing in silent file on each 
side of it. With more kindness and delicacy of feeling 
than is often supposed to belong to sailors, but which is 
almost characteristic, they intimated their wish that I 
should go in alone. As I crawled in, and, coming upon 
the darkness, heard before me the burst of welcome 
gladness that came from the four poor fellows stretched 
on their backs, and then for the first time the cheer out- 
side, my weakness and my gratitude together almost 
overcame me. ' They had expected me ; they were sure 
I would come ! ' '' 

We copy entire Dr. Kane's spirited account of the 
retreat of the party, now consisting of fifteen souls : 

" It was fortunate indeed that we were not inexpe- 
rienced in sledging over the ice. A great part of our 
track lay among a succession of hummocks ; some of 
them extended in long lines fifteen and twenty feet high, 
and so uniformly steep that we had to turn them by a 
considerable deviation from our direct course ; others 
that we forced our way through, far above our heads in 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 433 

height, lying in parallel ridges, with the space between 
too narrow for the sledge to be lowered into it safely, 
and yet not wide enough for the runners to cross with- 
out the aid of ropes to stay them. These spaces too 
were generally choked with light snow, hiding the 
openings between the ice-fragments. They were fear- 
ful traps to disengage a limb from ; for every man knew 
that a fracture, or a sprain even, would cost him his life. 
Besides all this, the sledge was top-heavy with its load : 
the maimed men could not bear to be lashed down tight 
enough to secure them against falling off. Notwith- 
standing our caution in rejecting every superfluous bur- 
den, the weight, including bags and tent, was eleven 
hundred pounds. 

" And yet our march for the first six hours was very 
cheering. We made, by vigorous pulls and lifts, nearly 
a mile an hour, and reached the new floes before we 
were absolutely weary. Our sledge sustained the trial 
admirably. Ohlsen, restored by hope, walked steadily 
at the leading-belt of the sledge-lines ; and I began to 
feel certain of reaching our half-way station of the day 
before, where we had left our tent. But we were still 
nine miles from it, when, almost without premonition, we 
all became aware of an alarming failure of bur energies. 

''I was 'of course familiar with the benumbed and 
almost lethargic sensation of extreme cold : and once, 
when exposed for some hours in the midwinter of Baf- 
fin's Bay, I had experienced symptoms which I com- 
pared to the diffused paralysis of the electro-galvanic 
shock. But I had treated the sleepy comfort of freezing 
as something like the embellishment of romance. I 
had evidence now to the contrary. 

" Bonsall and Morton, two of our stoutest men, came 
to me, begging permission to sleep ; ' they were not 
cold : the wind did not enter them now : a little sleep 
3t 



434 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

was all they wanted.' Presently Hans was found nearly 
stiff under a drift ; and Thomas, bolt upright, had his 
eyes closed, and could hardly articulate. At last, John 
Blake threw himself on the snow, and refused to rise. 
They did not complain of feeling cold ; but it was in 
vain that I wrestled, boxed, ran, argued, jeered, or 
reprimanded : an immediate halt could not be avoided. 

" We pitched our tent with much difficulty. Our 
hands were too powerless to strike a fire : we were 
obliged to do without water or food. Even the spirits 
(whiskey) had frozen at the men's feet, under all the 
coverings. We put Bonsall, Ohlsen, Thomas, and 
Hans, with the other sick men, well inside the tent, and 
crowded in as many others as we could. Then, leaving 
the party in charge of Mr. McGary, with orders to come 
on after four hours' rest, I pushed ahead with William 
Godfrey, who volunteered to be my companion. My 
aim was to reach the half-way tent, and thaw some ice 
and pemmican before the others arrived. 

" The floe was level ice, and the walking excellent. 
I cannot tell how long it took us to make the nine miles ; 
for we were in a strange sort of stupor, and had little 
apprehension of time. It was probably about four 
hours. We kept ourselves awake by imposing on each 
other a continued articulation of words ; they must have 
been incoherent enough. I recall these hours as among 
the most wretched I have ever gone through : we were 
neither of us in our right senses, and retained a very 
confused recollection of what preceded our arrival at 
the tent. We both of us, however, remember a bear, 
who walked leisurely before us, and tore up as he went 
a jumper that Mr. McGary had improvidently thrown 
off the day before. He tore it into shreds and rolled it 
into a ball, but never offered to interfere with our prog- 
ress. I remember this, and with it a confused senti- 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 435 

ment that our tent and buffalo-robes might probably 
share the same fate. Godfrey, with whom the memory 
of this day's work may atone for many faults of a later 
time, had a better eye than myself; and, looking some 
miles ahead, he could see that our tent was undergoing 
the same unceremonious treatment. I thought I saw it 
too ; but we were so drunken with cold that we strode 
on steadily, and, for aught I know, without quickening 
our pace. 

" Probably our approach saved the contents of the 
tent; for when we reached it the tent was uninjured, 
though the bear had overturned it, tossing the buffalo- 
robes and pemmican into the snow ; we missed only a 
couple of blanket-bags. What we recollect, however, 
and perhaps all we recollect, is, that we had great diffi- 
culty in raising it. We crawled into our reindeer 
sleeping-bags, without speaking, and for the next three 
hours slept on in a dreamy but intense slumber. When 
I awoke, my long beard was a mass of ice, frozen fast 
to the buffalo-skin : Godfrey had to cut me out with his 
jack-knife. Four days after our escape, I found my 
woollen comfortable with a goodly share of my beard 
still adhering to it. 

" We were able to melt water and get some soup 
cooked before the rest of our party arrived : it took 
them but five hours to walk the nine miles. They were 
doing well, and, considering the circumstances, in won- 
derful spirits. The day was most providentially wind- 
less, with a clear sun. All enjoyed the refreshment we 
had got ready : the crippled were repacked in their 
robes ; and we sped briskly toward the hummock-ridges 
which lay between us and the Pinnacly Berg. 

" The hummocks we had now to meet came properly 
under the designation of squeezed ice. A great chain 
of bergs stretching from north-west to south-east, mov- 



436 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

ing with the tides, had compressed the surface-floes ; 
and, rearing them up on their edges, produced an area 
more like the volcanic pedragal of the basin of Mexico 
than anything else I can compare it to. 

" It required desperate efforts to work our way over 
it — literally desperate, for our strength failed us anew, 
and we began to lose our self-control. We could not 
abstain any longer from eating snow ; our mouths 
swelled, and some of us became speechless. Happily, 
the day was warmed by a clear sunshine, and the ther- 
mometer rose to — 4° in the shade ; otherwise we must 
have frozen. 

" Our halts multiplied, and we fell half-sleeping on 
the snow. I could not prevent it. Strange to say, it 
refreshed us. I ventured upon the experiment myself, 
making Riley wake me at the end of three minutes ; 
and I felt so much benefited by it that I timed the men 
in the same way. They sat on the runners of the 
sledge, fell asleep instantly, and were forced to wake- 
fulness when their three minutes were out. 

'* By eight in the evening we emerged from the floes. 
The sight of the Pinnacly Berg revived us. Brandy, 
an invaluable resource in emergency, had already been 
served out in table-spoonful doses. We now took a 
longer rest, and a last but stouter dram, and reached 
the brig at one p. m., we believe, without a halt. 

" I say we believe; and here, perhaps, is the most 
decided proof of our sufferings ; we were quite delir- 
ious, and had ceased to entertain a sane apprehension 
of the circumstances about us. We moved on like men 
in a dream. Our foot-marks, seen afterward, showed 
that we had steered a bee-line for the brig. It must 
have been by a sort of instinct, for it left no impress on 
the memory. Bonsall was sent staggering ahead, and 
reached the brig, God knows how, for he had fallen 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 437 

repeatedly at the track-lines ; but he delivered, with 
punctilious accuracy, the messages I had sent by him 
to Dr. Hayes. I thought myself the soundest of all ; 
for I went through all the formula of sanity, and can 
recall the muttering delirium of my comrades when we 
got back into the cabin of our brig. Yet I have been 
told since of some speeches, and some orders, too, of 
mine, which I should have remembered for their absurd- 
ity, if my mind had retained its balance. 

" Petersen and Whipple came out to meet us about 
two miles from the brig. They brought my dog-team, 
with the restoratives I had sent for by Bonsall. I do 
not remember their coming. Dr. Hayes entered with 
judicious energy upon the treatment our condition 
called for ; administering morphine freely, after the 
usual frictions. He reported none of our brain-symp- 
toms as serious, referring them properly to the class of 
those indications of exhausted power which yield to a 
generous diet and rest. Mr. Ohlsen suffered some time 
from strabismus and blindness ; two others underwent 
amputation of parts of the foot, without unpleasant 
consequences ; and two died, in spite of all our efforts. 
This rescue-party had been out for seventy-two hours. 
We had halted in all eight hours, half of our number 
sleeping at a time! We travelled between eighty and 
ninety miles, most of the way dragging a heavy sledge. 
The mean temperature of the whole time, including the 
warmest hours of three days, was at minus 41°. 2. We 
had no water except at our two halts, and were at 
no time able to intermit vigorous exercise without 
freezing. 

^' April 4,, Tuesday. — Four days have passed, and I 
am again at my record of failures, sound, but aching 
still in every joint. The rescued men are not out of 
31* 



438 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

danger, but their gratitude is very touching. Pray 
God that they may live ! ^' 

The first appearance of the Esquimaux is thus de- 
scribed : 

" We were watching, in the morning, at Baker's 
death-bed, when one of our deck-watch, who had been 
cutting ice for the melter, came hurrying down to the 
cabin with the report, ' People hollaing ashore ! ' I 
went up, followed by as many as could mount the gang- 
way ; and there they were, on all sides of our rocky 
harbor, dotting the snow-shores, and emerging from the 
blackness of the cliffs — wild and uncouth, but evi- 
dently human beings. 

"As we gathered on the deck, they rose upon the 
more elevated fragments of the land-ice, standing singly 
and conspicuously, like the figures in a tableau of the 
opera, and distributing themselves around almost in a 
half-circle. They were vociferating as if to attract our 
attention, or, perhaps, only to give vent to their sur- 
prise ; but I could make nothing out of their cries, 
except ' Hoah, ha, ha ! ' and ' Ka, kaah ! ka, kaah ! ' 
repeated over and over again. 

" There was light enough for me to see that they 
brandished no weapons, and were only tossing their 
heads and arms about in violent gesticulations. A more 
unexcited inspection showed us, too, that their numbers 
were not as great, nor their size as Patagonian, as some 
of us had been disposed to fancy at first. In a word, I 
was satisfied that they were natives of the country ; 
and, calling Petersen from his bunk to be my interpreter, 
I proceeded, unarmed, and waving my open hands, 
toward a stout figure, who made himself conspicuous, 
and seemed to have a greater number near him than 
the rest. He evidently understood the movement ; for 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 439 

he at once, like a brave fellow, leaped down upon the 
floe, and advanced to meet me fully half-way. 

" He was nearly a head taller than myself, extremely 
powerful and well-built, with swarthy complexion, and 
black eyes. His dress was a hooded capote or jumper, 
of mixed white and blue fox-pelts, arranged with some- 
thing of fancy ; and booted trousers of white bear-skin, 
which, at the end of the foot, were made to terminate 
with the claws of the animal. 

" I soon came to an understanding with this gallant 
diplomatist. Almost as soon as we commenced our 
parley, his companions, probably receiving signals from 
him, flocked in and surrounded us ; but we had no diffi- 
culty in making them know, positively, that they must 
remain where they w^re, while Metek went with me on 
board the ship. This gave me the advantage of nego- 
tiating with an important hostage. 

" Although this was the first time he had ever seen 
a white man, he went with me fearlessly, his compan- 
ions staying behind on the ice. Hickey took them out 
what he esteemed our greatest delicacies — slices of 
good wheat bread, and corned pork, with exorbitant 
lumps of white sugar ; but they refused to touch them. 
They had evidently no apprehension of open violence 
from us. I found, afterward, that several among them 
were singly a match for the white bear and the walrus, 
and that they thought us a very pale-faced crew. 

" Being satisfied with my interview in the cabin, I 
sent out word that the rest might be admitted to the 
ship ; and, although they, of course, could not know 
how their chief had been dealt with, some nine or ten 
of them followed, with boisterous readiness, upon the 
bidding. Others, in the mean time, as if disposed to 
give us their company for the full time of a visit, 
brought up from behind the land-ice as many as fifty-six 



440 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

fine dogs, with their sledges, and secured them within 
two hundred feet of the brig, driving their lances into 
the ice, and picketing the dogs to them by the seal-skin 
traces. The animals understood the operation perfectly, 
and lay down as soon as it commenced. The sledges 
were made up of small fragments of porous bone, admira- 
bly knit together by thongs of hide ; the runners, which 
glistened like burnished steel, were of highly-polished 
ivory, obtained from the tusks of the walrus. 

" The only arms they carried were knives, concealed 
in their boots ; but their lances, which were lashed to 
the sledges, were quite a formidable weapon. The staff 
was of the horn of the narwhal, or else of the thigh-bones 
of the bear, two lashed together ; or sometimes the 
mirabilis of the walrus, three or four of them united. 
This last was a favorite material, also, for the cross-bars 
of their sledges. They had no wood. A single rusty 
hoop from a current-drifted cask might have furnished 
all the knives of the party ; but the fleam-shaped tips 
of their lances were of unmistakable steel, and were 
riveted to the tapering, bony point, with no mean skill. 
I learned afterward that the metal was obtained in traffic 
from the more southern tribes. 

'' They were clad much as I have described Metek, 
in jumpers, boots, and white bear-skin breeches, with 
their feet decorated like his, en griffe. A strip of knot- 
ted leather worn round the neck, very greasy and dirty- 
looking, which no one could be persuaded to part with 
for an instant, was mistaken, at first, for an ornament 
by the crew ; it was not until mutual hardships had 
made us better acquainted that we learned its mys- 
terious uses. 

" When they were first allowed to come on board, 
they were very rude and difficult to manage. They 
, spoke three or four at a time, to each other and to us. 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 441 

laughing heartily at our ignorance in not understanding 
them, and then talking away, as before. They were in- 
cessantly in motion, — going everywhere, trying doors, 
and squeezing themselves through dark passages, round 
casks and boxes, and out into the light again, anxious to 
touch and handle everything they saw, and asking for, 
or else endeavoring to steal, everything they touched. 
It was the more diflScult to restrain them, as I did not 
wish them to suppose that we were at all intimidated. 
But there were some signs of our disabled condition, 
which it was important they should not see ; it was 
especially necessary to keep them out of the forecastle, 
where the dead body of poor Baker was lying ; and, as 
it was in vain to reason or persuade, we had, at last, to 
employ the ' gentle layiug-on of hands,' which, I believe, 
the laws of all countries tolerate, to keep them in order. 

" Our whole force was mustered, and kept constantly 
on the alert ; but, though there may have been some- 
thing of discourtesy in the occasional shoulderings and 
bustlings that enforced the police of the ship, things 
went on good-humoredly. Our guests continued run- 
ning in and out and about the vessel, bringing in pro- 
visions, and carrying them out again to their dogs on 
the ice ; in fact, stealing all the time, until the after- 
noon, when, like tired children, they threw themselves 
down to sleep. I ordered them to be made comfortable 
in the hold ; and Morton spread a large buffalo-robe for 
them not far from a coal-fire in the galley-stove. 

" They were lost in barbarous amaze at the new fuel, 
— too hard for blubber, too soft for fire-stone, — but 
they were content to believe it might cook as well as 
seal's fat. They borrowed from us an iron pot, and 
some melted water, and parboiled a couple of pieces of 
walrus-meat ; but, the real piece de resistance, some five 
pounds of head, they preferred to eat raw. Yet there 



442 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

was something of the gourmet in their mode of assort- 
ing their mouthfuls of beef and blubber. Slices of each, 
or rather strips, passed between the lips, either to- 
gether or in strict alternation, and with a regularity of 
sequence that kept the molars well to their work. 

" They did not eat all at once, but each man when 
and as often as the impulse prompted. Each slept after 
eating, his raw chunk lying beside him on the buffalo- 
skin ; and, as he woke, the first act was to eat, and the 
nezt to sleep again. They did not lie down, but slum- 
bered away in a sitting posture, with the head declined 
upon the breast, some of them snoring famously. 

" In the morning they were anxious to go ; but I had 
given orders to detain them for a parting interview with 
myself. It resulted in a treaty, brief in its terms, that 
it might be certainly remembered ; and mutually bene- 
ficial, that it might possibly be kept. I tried to make 
them understand what a powerful Prospero they had had 
for a host, and how beneficent he would prove himself so 
long as they did his bidding. And, as an earnest of my 
favor, I bought all the walrus-meat they had to spare, 
and four of their dogs ; enriching them, in return, with 
needles and beads, and a treasure of old cask-staves." 

The flesh of the seal is eaten universally by the Danes 
of Greenland, and is, at certain seasons, almost the 
staple diet of the Esquimaux. These animals are shot 
lying by their atluk or breathing-holes. Their eyes are 
so congested by the glare of the sun in midsummer as 
to render them more readily approachable. 

" On one occasion," says Dr. Kane, " while working 
my way toward the Esquimaux huts, I saw a large Usuk 
basking asleep upon the ice. Taking off my shoes, I 
commenced a somewhat refrigerating process of stalk- 
ing, lying upon my belly, and crawling along, step by 
step, behind the little knobs of floe. At last, when I 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 443 

was within long rifle-shot, the animal gave a sluggish 
roll to one side, and suddenly lifted his head. The 
movement was evidently independent of me, for he 
strained his neck in nearly the opposite direction. Then, 
for the first time, I found that I had a rival seal-hunter 
in a large bear, who was, on his belly like myself, wait- 
ing with commendable patience and cold feet for a chance 
of nearer approach. 

" What should I do ? — the bear was doubtless worth 
more to me than the seal ; but the seal was now within 
shot, and the bear ' a bird in the bush/ Besides, my 
bullet once invested in the seal would leave me defence- 
less. I might be giving a dinner to a bear, and saving 
myself for his dessert. These meditations were soon 
brought to a close ; for a second movement of the seal 
so aroused my hunter's instincts that I pulled the trigger. 
My cap alone exploded. Instantly, with a floundering 
splash, the seal descended into the deep, and the bear, 
with three or four rapid leaps, stood disconsolately by 
the place of his descent. For a single moment we 
stared each other in the face, and then, with that dis- 
cretion which is the better part of valor, the bear ran 
off in one direction, and I followed his example in the 
other." 

The month of April was about to close, and the short 
season available for Arctic search was already advanced, 
when Dr. Kane started on his grand sledge expedition 
to the north. " It was," says the enterprising com- 
mander, " to be the crowning expedition of the campaign 
to attain the ultima thule of the Greenland shore, meas- 
ure the waste that lay between it and the unknown 
west, and seek round the furthest circle of the ice for 
an outlet to the mysterious channels beyond," The 
rigor of the climate, the difficulties of the country, the 
failure of the caches which had been broken into by the 



444 DE. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

bears, the enfeebled state of the party, and the inade- 
quacy of means and equipments, all, however, combined 
to cause failure. By the 5th of May, Dr. Kane had 
become delirious, and fainted every time that he was 
taken from the tent to the sledge ; so all idea of further 
progress had to be given up. He was taken into the 
brig on the 14th, and lay fluctuating between life and 
death till the 20th. 

Some interesting discoveries were, however, made on 
this unfortunate trip, more especially of two remarkable 
freaks of nature, one of which was called the '' Three 
Brother Turrets,'^ the other, " Tennyson's Monument." 
The latter was a solitary column, or " minaret tower " 
of greenstone, the length of whose shaft was four hun- 
dred and eighty feet, and it rose on a plinth, or pedestal, 
itself two hundred and eighty feet high, as sharply fin- 
ished as if it had been cast for the Place Yendome. But 
by far the most remarkable feature in the inland Green- 
land sea is the so-called " Great Glacier of Humboldt." 

" I will not attempt " (writes Dr. Kane, speaking of 
the impossibility of giving an idea of this great glacier 
by sketches) " to do better by florid description. Men 
only rhapsodize about Niagara and the ocean. My 
notes speak simply of the ' long, ever-shining line of 
cliff diminished to a well-pointed wedge in the perspec- 
tive ; ' and again, of ' the face of glistening ice, sweep- 
ing in a long curve from the low interior, the facets in 
front intensely illuminated by the sun.' But this line 
of cliff rose in solid glassy wall three hundred feet above 
the water level, with an unknown, unfathomable depth 
below it; and its curved face, sixty miles in length, 
from Cape Agassiz to Cape Forbes, vanished into 
unknown space at not more than a single day's railroad- 
travel from the pole. The interior with which it com- 
municated, and from which it issued, was an unsurveyed 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 445 

mer de glace, an ice-ocean, to the eye of boundless 
dimensions. 

" It was in full sight — the mighty crystal bridge which 
connects the two continents of America and Greenland. 
I say continents, for Greenland, however insulated it 
may ultimately prove to be, is in mass strictly conti- 
nental. Its least possible axis, measured from Cape 
Farewell to the line of this glacier, in the neighborhood 
of the eightieth parallel, gives a length of more than 
twelve hundred miles, — not materially less than that of 
Australia from its northern to its southern cape. 

'' Imagine now the centre of such a continent, oc- 
cupied through nearly its whole extent by a deep un- 
broken sea of ice, that gathers perennial increase from 
the water-shed of vast snow-covered mountains, and all 
the precipitations of the atmosphere upon its own sur- 
face. Imagine this moving onward like a great glacial 
river, seeking outlets at every fiord and valley, rolling 
icy cataracts into the Atlantic and Greenland seas ; and, 
having at last reached the northern limit of the land that 
has borne it up, pouring out a mighty frozen torrent 
into unknown Arctic space. 

" It is thus, and only thus, that we must form a just 
conception of a phenomenon like this Great Glacier. I 
had looked in my own mind for such an appearance, 
should I ever be fortunate enough to reach the northern 
coast of Greenland. But, now that it was before me, I 
could hardly realize it. I had recognized, in my' quiet 
library at home, the beautiful analogies which Forbes 
and Studer have developed between the glacier and the 
river. But I could not comprehend at first this com- 
plete substitution of ice for water. 

" It was slowly that the conviction dawned on me 
that I was looking upon the counterpart of the great 
river system of Arctic Asia and America. Yet here 
38 



446 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

were no water-feeders from the south. Every particle 
of moisture had its origin within the Polar Circle, and 
had been converted into ice. There were no vast allu- 
vions, no forest or animal traces borne down by liquid 
torrents. Here was a plastic, moving, semi-solid mass, 
obliterating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and 
ploughing its way with irresistible march through the 
crust of an investing sea." 

" Humboldt Glacier " and " Tennyson's Monument '' 
will deservedly occupy a place in all future editions of 
those interesting little books called " Wonders of the 
World." As soon as Dr. Kane had recovered enough to 
become aware of his failure, he began to devise means for 
remedying it. Of the ship's company, the only one 
remaining, qualified to conduct a survey, was Dr. Hayes. 
He accordingly started with a dog-team, in company 
with William Godfrey, across Smith's Straits, on the 
20th of May, and succeeded in reaching 79° 45' north 
latitude, in longitude 69° 12'. The coast was sighted 
for thirty miles to the northward and eastward, and two 
large headlands, called Capes Joseph Leidy and John 
Frazer, were named upon it. The doctor returned to 
the brig, after a very arduous and fatiguing journey, on 
the 1st of June, worn out and snow-blind. In many 
places he could not have advanced but for the dogs. 
Deep cavities filled with snow intervened between lines 
of ice-barricades, making the travel slow and tedious. 
For some time he was not able, from snow-blindness, to 
use the sextant. The rude harness of the dogs would 
get tangled and cause delay. It was only after appro- 
priating an undue share of his seal-skin breeches that 
Dr. Hayes succeeded in patching up his mutilated dog- 
lines. His pemmican became so reduced that to return 
was a thing of necessity. The land-ice was travelled 
for a while at the rate of five or six miles an hour ; but 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 447 

after crossing Dobbin Bay, the snows were an un- 
expected impediment. 

Notwithstanding the perils, privations, and suffer- 
ings, that had attended all the sledge-parties. Dr. Kane 
determined to organize another before the brief season 
for such had gone by. This last, under Messrs. M'Gary 
andBonsall, left the brig on the 3d of June, and reached 
Humboldt Glacier on the 15th. They were provided 
with apparatus for climbing ice, but failed in all their 
efforts to scale this stupendous glacial mass. The bears 
were so bold as actually to poke their heads in at the 
tent-door, to the great inconvenience of the sleepers 
within. Four of the party returned to the brig on the 
2tth, one of them entirely blind. 

Hans and Morton remained out, pushing northwards, 
and keeping parallel to the glacier at a distance of from 
five to seven miles. They saw rectangular pieces of ice, 
apparently detached from the glacier, more than a mile 
long ! On the 21st of June they sighted open water. 
This was afterwards called Kennedy Channel. After 
turning Cape Andrew Jackson they made better way 
along the ice-foot ; and they pursued their course as far 
as Cape Constitution, on " Washington Land,'' in 82° 
2t'. The highest point on the opposite coast of " Grin- 
nell Land '' was a lofty mountain, estimated to be in 
latitude 82° 30', and longitude 66° west, which Dr. Kane 
called Mount Edward Parry ; who, he says, " as he has 
carried his name to the most northern latitude yet 
reached, should have in this, the highest known northern 
land, a recognition of his preeminent position among 
Arctic explorers.'' This open channel was found to 
abound in seals ; bears were numerous — one with its cub 
they succeeded in killing ; and birds, among which 
were brent geese, eider-ducks, king-ducks, dovekies, 
gulls, sea-swallows, and Arctic petrels, were in exceed- 



448 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

ing plenty. This was the crowning excursion of the 
expedition, and the results present rich matter for spec- 
ulation to those who believe in an open polar sea beyond 
the region of embayed and strangulated ice-floes. 

Instead of the Bay of Baffin forming a cul de sac, as 
the old tradition of the whalers conceived, it leads to a 
strait (Smithes Strait), which passes on into a channel 
(Kennedy Channel), that apparently expands into an 
open polar sea, abounding with life, some three hundred 
miles further to the north than the head of Baffin's Bay. 
The shores of this channel, terminating in the Cape 
Constitution of Mr. Morton, in latitude 81° 22', on the 
eastern side, and in Sir Edward Parry's peak, about 
latitude 82° 1*7', on the western side, had now been 
delineated and mapped through an extent of nine hun- 
dred and sixty miles, at a cost of two thousand miles of 
travel on foot and in sledges. Mr. Morton commenced 
his return on the 25th of June, and reached the ship on 
the 10th of July, staggering by the side of the limping 
dogs, one of which was riding as a passenger upon the 



The summer of 1854 was now wearing on, and yet no 
prospects presented themselves of the ice breaking up, 
so as to liberate the brig. Under these circumstances, 
Dr. Kane determined upon making an attempt to com- 
municate with Sir Edward Belcher's squadron at 
Beechey Island. For this purpose a boat was fitted out, 
called the Forlorn Hope, and was carried across the 
heavy ice-floe to be launched in open water. On their 
way to the southward they fell in with an island, upon 
which they killed a number of eider-ducks, and procured 
a large supply of eggs. On the 19th of July they made 
Cape Alexander, and were enabled to determine that 
the narrowest part of Smith's Strait is not, as has been 
considered, between Cape Isabella and Cape Alexander, 



DE. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 449 

but upon the parallel of 18° 24', where Cape Isabella 
bears due west of Littleton Island, and the diameter of 




THE FORLORN HOPE EQUIPPED. 



the channel is reduced to thirty-seven miles. Hence, 
they passed from the straits into the open seaway. At 
this time a gale broke upon them from the north, and 
they were exposed to all its fury in the open whale-boat. 
They were glad to drive before the wind into the in-shore 
floes. The pack, so much feared before, was now looked 
to as a refuge. 

Working their way through the broken pack, they 
reached Hakluyt Island on the 23d of July, where they 
rested a while and dried their buffalo-robes. The next 
morning they renewed their labors, but were arrested 
by the pack off Northumberland Island. For four days 
they made strenuous efforts to work through the half- 
open leads, but in vain ; they had reached the dividing 
pack of the two great open waters of Baffin's Bay, and 
which Dr. Kane considered to be made up of the ices 
which Jones's Sound on the west, and Murchison's on 
the east, had discharged and driven together. Under 
these circumstances, they were obliged to return to 
Northumberland Island, which they found to be one 
enormous homestead of auks, dovekies, and gulls, and 
38* 



450 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

where they procured sorrel and cochlearia. Foxes were 
also very numerous. By the time they got back to the 
brig, the commander says he and his little party had 
got quite' fat and strong upon the auks, eiders, and 
scurvy-grass. 

On board of the Advance, however, which had now 
been imprisoned by closely-cementing ice for eleven 
months, as the season travelled on and the young ice 
grew thicker, faces began, also, to grow longer every 
day. It was the only face with which they could look 
upon another winter. '' It is horrible, ^^ writes Dr. Kane, 
— " yes, that is the word, — to look forward to another 
year of disease and darkness, to be met without fresh 
food and without fuel.'' 

Under these circumstances. Dr. Kane called the offi- 
cers and crew together, and left to every man his own 
choice to remain by the ship or to attempt an escape to 
the Danish settlements to the southward. Eight out of 
the seventeen survivors resolved to stand by the brig 
and their commander. The remainder started off, on the 
28th, ''with the elastic step of men confident in their 
purpose ; '' but one returned a few days afterwards, and 
all ultimately either found their way back, or were 
brought back by the humane Esquimaux, after hard 
trials, and almost unparalleled sufferings. 

Those that remained with the ship set to work at once 
gathering moss for eking out the winter fuel, and willow- 
stems ^nd sorrel as antiscorbutics. The " mossing,'' 
although it had a pleasant sound, was in reality a fright- 
fully wintry operation. The mixed turf, of willows, 
heiaths, grasses, and moss, was frozen solid. It had to 
be quarried with crowbars, and carried to the ship like 
so much stone. With this they banked up the ship's 
sides, and below they enclosed a space some eighteen 
feet square, and packed it with the same material from 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 451 

floor to ceiling. The entrance was also by a low, raoss- 
lined tunnel, and in this apartment the men stowed 
away for the winter. The closer they lay, the warmer. 
Dr. Kane was once more nearly lost, however, before 
darkness came on. In an attempt to kill a seal he got 
upon thin ice, and was, with dogs and sledge, thrown 
into open water. He owed his extrication, when 
nearly gone, to a newly-broken team-dog, who was still 
fast to the sledge, and drew it and the doctor up on to 
the floe. 

An occasional intercourse had always been kept up 
with the Esquimaux. We have seen that they came to 
pilfer, and Dr. Kane retorted by making some of them 
prisoners. A treaty of friendship was then made, and 
never broken by the natives. The nearest Esquimaux 
settlement was distant, by dog-journey, about seventy- 
five miles ; and with this rude but friendly people our 
adventurers established a communication, and procured 
from them supplies of bear-meat, seal, walrus, fox, and 
ptarmigan, which were eaten raw, — the custom in this 
region. But these supplies became scanty with the 
approach of the dark months. Attempts to reach the 
Esquimaux were rendered impracticable by the rugged- 
ness of the ice ; and this unfortunate people were them- 
selves reduced to the lowest stages of misery and 
emaciation by famine, attended with various frightful 
forms of disease. 

On the 14th of January Dr. Kane congratulated him- 
self that m five more days the mid-day sun would be 
only '' eight degrees hehw the horizon J ^ On the 9 th of 
February he wrote in his journal : "It is enough to 
solemnize men of more joyous temperament than ours 
has been for some months. We are contending at 
odds with angry forces close around us, without one 
agent or influence within eighteen hundred miles whose 



452 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

sympathy is on our side.^^ There were no star obser- 
vations this winter ; the observatory had become the 
mausoleum of the two of the party who had succumbed 
after the excursion in the snow-drift. In the beginning 
of March every man on board was tainted with scurvy ; 
and often not more than three were able to make exer- 
tion in behalf of the rest. On the 4th of the month 
the last remnant of fresh meat was doled out, and the 
invalids began to sink rapidly. Their lives were only 
saved by the success of a forlorn-hope excursion of 
Hans to the remote Esquimaux hunting-station Etah, 
seventy-five miles away, whither he went in search of 
walrus. 

On one occasion the adventurers killed a bear that 
had come with its cub, pressed by extreme hunger, 
close to the brig. It is painful to read the details of 
the struggle, fi:om the wonderful attachment shown by 
the mother to its cub, and by the latter to its parent, to 
whom it always clung, even in death. But the men's 
lives were valuable ; and it was thought excusable to 
kill two bears when the glaucous gulls were seen gob- 
bling up young eider-ducks in the face of their dis- 
tracted mothers by mouthfuls. Dr. Kane was the only 
person who would eat rats. He attributes his compara- 
tive immunity from scurvy to '' rat-soup. '^ Among the 
Arctic dainties which seem most to have excited his 
gastronomic enthusiasm was frozen walrus-liver, eaten 
raw. 

Having no fuel, they were now reduced to the Esqui- 
maux system of relying on lamps for heat ; beds and 
bedding hence became black with soot, and their faces 
were begrimed with fatty carbon. The journal is now 
little more than a chronicle of privations and sufferings, 
interspersed with extraordinary efforts to keep up com- 
munications with the Esquimaux. It is, without compar- 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 453 

ison, the most painfully interesting record of experience 
in wintering in the far north that has ever yet been 
published. In the midst of their troubles two of the men 
tried to desert, but only one — Grodfrey — succeeded. 
He returned, strange to say, on the 2d of April, with 
food, in a sledge, but would not himself quit the Esqui- 
maux. Under a misapprehension that he had robbed 
Hans, one of the hunters, of his sledge and dogs, his 
life was near being sacrificed by the commander from 
whom he had deserted. 

The abandonment of the brig was now resolved on. 
Before spring could be welcomed, preparations had been 
going on for some time for a sledge and boat escape 
from their long imprisonment. The employment thus 
given to the men exerted a wholesome influence on their 
moral tone, and assisted their convalescence. They had 
three boats, and they all required to be strengthened. 
There was clothing, bedding, and provision-bags, to 
make. The sledges had to be prepared. The ITth of 
May was appointed for the start. The farewell to the 
ship was most impressive. Prayers were read, and then 
a chapter of the Bible. The flags were then hoisted and 
hauled down again, and she was left alone in the ice. 
Godfrey had, by this time, it is to be observed, rejoined 
the ship ; so the party consisted altogether of seventeen, 
of whom four were unable to move. 

The collections of natural history the party were 
reluctantly compelled to leave behind, and part of the 
apparatus for observations, as well as the library of the 
commander, and the books furnished by the govern- 
ment and Mr. Grinnell for the use of the vessel. 
Nothing was retained but the documents of the expe- 
dition. 

At Etah the Esquimaux settlement were found " out 
on the bare rocks," enjoying the plenty which spring 



454 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 



had brought. " Rudest of gypsies, how they squalled, 
and laughed, and snored, and rolled about ! Some were 
sucking bird-skins ; others were boiling incredible num- 
bers of auks in huge soapstpne pots ; and two young- 
sters, crying, at the top of their voices, ' Oopegsoak ! 
oopegsoak ! ' were fighting for an owl. 




" There was enough to make them improvident. The 
little auks were breeding in the low cones of rubbish 
under the cliffs in such numbers that it cost them no 
more to get food than it does a cook to gather vegeta- 
bles. A boy, ordered to climb the rocks with one of 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 455 

their purse-nets of seal-skin at the end of a narwhal's 
tusk, would return in a few minutes with as many as he 
could carry.'' 

Up to the 23d the progress of Dr. Kane's party was 
little more than a mile a day. The housed boats luck- 
ily afforded tolerably good sleeping-berths at night. On 
the 5th of June, Ohlsen injured himself so in an attempt 
to rescue a sledge from falling into a tide-hole, that he 
died three days afterwards. 

'' Still passing slowly on, day after day, — I am reluct- 
ant," writes Dr. Kane, " to borrow from my journal 
the details of anxiety and embarrassment with which it 
abounds throughout this period, — we came at last to the 
unmistakable neighborhood of open water." This was 
off Pekintlek, the largest of the Littleton Island group. 

On Tuesday, the 19th of June, after a long farewell 
given to their long-tried friends, the Esquimaux of 
Etah, who had brought them frequent supplies of birds, 
and aided them in carrying their provisions and stores, 
they put to sea, and, the very first day's navigation, one 
of the boats swamped. They spent the first night in 
an inlet in the ice, and on the 22d reached Northumber- 
land Island in a snow-storm. Here they got fresh pro- 
visions. They crossed Murchison Channel on the 23d, 
and encamped for the night on the land-floe at the base 
of Cape Parry — a hard day's travel, partly by tracking- 
over ice, partly through tortuous and zig-zag leads. So 
it was for many successive days. One day favorable, 
with open leads of water : another, slow and wearisome, 
through alternate ice and water. Then the floe would 
break up and carry them resistlessly against the rocks. 
Three long days they passed in a cavern of rock and 
ice, in which, however, they found plenty of birds' 
eggs. 

On the 11th they had doubled Cape Dudley Digges, 



456 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

and plants, and birds, and birds' eggs, became more 
common. They spent a week to regain strength at so 
productive a spot, which they designated as " Provi- 
dence Halt.'' At the Crimson Cliffs they again got a 
plentiful supply of birds. On the 21st of July they 
reached Cape York, and made immediate preparations 
for crossing Melville Bay, which was accomplished 
with great labor and suffering. Once more they were 
nearly starving, when a great seal came providentially 
to their succor. Their feet were so swollen that they 
were obliged to cut open their canvas boots. The most 
unpleasant symptom was that they could not sleep. On 
the 1st of August they sighted the Devil's Thumb. 
Hence they fetched the Duck Islands, and, passing to 
the south of Cape Shackleton, landed on terra firma. 
Two or three days more, and they were under the 
shadow of Karkamoot. 

"Just then a familiar sound came to us over the 
water. We had often listened to the screeching of 
the gulls, or the bark of the fox, and mistaken it for 
the ' Huk ' of the Esquimaux ; but this had about it an 
inflection not to be mistaken, for it died away in the 
familiar cadence of a 'halloo.' 

'' ' Listen, Petersen ! Oars — men ? What is it ? ' and 
he listened quietly at first, and then, trembling, said, in 
a half- whisper, ' Dannemarkers ! ' " 

It was the Upernavik oil-boat, and the next day they 
were at Upernavik itself, after being eighty-four days 
in the open air. They could not remain within the four 
walls of a house without a distressing sense of suffo- 
cation. 

From Dr. Kane's report to the Navy Department we 
quote the summing up of the results of the expedition. 
They embrace : 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 457 

"1. The survey and delineation of the north coast of 
Greenland to its termination by a great glacier. 

"2. The survey of this glacial mass, and its exten- 
sion northward into the new laud named Washington. 

"3. The discovery of a large channel to the north- 
west, free from ice, and leading into an open and 
expanding area, equally free. The whole embraces an 
iceless area of four thousand two hundred miles. 

''4. The discovery and delineation of a large tract of 
land, forming the extension northward of the American 
continent. 

"6. The completed survey of the American coast to 
the south and west, as far as Cape Sabine ; thus con- 
necting our survey with the last determined position of 
Captain Inglefield, and completing the circuit of the 
straits and bay heretofore known at their southernmost 
opening as Smith's Sound.'' 

The view of the open sea referred to was obtained 
by William Morton, from a precipitous headland, — the 
furthest point attained by the party, in latitude 81° 22' 
N., and longitude 65° 35' W., at an altitude of five 
hundred feet above the sea. The reasons assigned by 
our author for regarding it an iceless open sea are the 
following : 

"1. It was approached by a channel entirely free 
from ice, having a length of fifty-two and a mean width 
of thirty-six geographical miles. 

"2. The coast-ice along the water-line of this channel 
had been completely destroyed by thaw and water- 
action ; while an unbroken belt of solid ice, one hundred 
and twenty-five miles in diameter, extended to the 
south. 

"3. A gale from the north-east, of fifty-four hours' 
duration, brought a heavy sea from that quarter, with- 
out disclosing any drift or other ice. 
39 



458 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

"4. Dark nimbus clouds and water-sky invested the 
north-eastern horizon. 

"'6. Crowds of migratory birds were observed throng- 
ing its waters.'' 

There is much in Dr. Kane's wonderful narrative to 
remind the reader of the story of old William Barentz, 
whO; two hundred and fifty-nine years ago, wintered on 
the coast of Nova Zembla. His men, seventeen in 
number, broke down during the trials of winter, and 
three died, just as of the eighteen under Dr. Kane three 
had gone. Barentz abandoned his vessel, as the Ameri- 
cans abandoned theirs, took to his boats, and escaped 
along the Lapland coast to lands of Norwegian civiliza- 
tion. The Americans embarked with sledges and boats 
to attempt the same thing. They had the longer jour- 
ney, and the more difficult one, before them. Barentz 
lost, as they did, a cherished comrade by the wayside. 
But one resemblance luckily does not exist : Barentz 
himself perished — Dr Kane lived to write an account of 
all that he suffered in a noble cause. No mere abstract 
of his narrative can give an idea of its absorbing inter- 
est. 

His book is above all common praise, on account of 
the simple, manly, unaffected style in which the nar- 
rative of arduous enterprise and firm endurance is told. 
It is obviously a faithful i:ecord of occurrences, made by 
a man who was quite aware that what he had to tell 
needed no extraneous embellishment. There is, how- 
ever, so much of artistic order in the mind of the nar- 
rator, that the unvarnished record has naturally shaped 
itself into a work of distinguished excellence upon 
hterary grounds. The scenes which it describes are 
so vividly and vigorously brought before the reader, 
that there are few who sit down to the perusal of the 
narrative but will fancy, before they rise from the en- 



DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 459 

grossing occupation, their own flesh paralyzed by the 
cold one hundred degrees greater than frost, and their 
blood scurvy-filled by the four months' sunlessness. 

It is only just also to remark, that there is unmistak- 
able evidence, in the pages of this interesting book, that 
the doctor was no less eminently gifted for the duties 
of his command than he has been happy in his relation 
of its history. Every step in his arduous path seems to 
have been taken only after the exercise of deliberately 
matured forethought. A few illustrations must be 
gleaned, from the many that are scattered through the 
pages of his journal, to direct attention to this honorable 
characteristic. When the doctor had formed his own 
resolution to remain by the brig through the second 
winter, he made the following entry, under the date of 
August 22 : ''I shall call the oflScers and crew together, 
and make known to them, very fully, how things look, 
and what hazards must attend such an effort as has 
been proposed among them. They shall have my views 
unequivocally expressed. I will then give them twenty- 
four hours tcf deliberate ; and, at the end of that time, 
all who determine to go shall say so in writing, with a 
full exposition of the circumstances of the case. They 
shall have the best outfit I can give, an abundant share 
of our remnant stores, and my good-by blessing.'' 

On the 6th of April the Esquimaux auxiliary, Hans, 
was gone to Etah, with a sledge, to seek a supply of 
walrus-meat, when, as we have already stated, William 
Godfrey deserted from the ship ; and, the commander 
suspected, with some sinister design upon Hans and the 
sledge. Dr. Kane then wrote : " Clearly, duty to this 
poor boy calls me to seek him ; and, clearly, duty to 
these dependent men calls me to stay. Long and 
uncomfortably have I pondered over these opposing 
calls, but at last have come to a determination. Hans 



460 DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 

was faithful to me ; the danger to him is imminent, the 
danger to those left behind only contingent upon my 
failure to return. With earnest trust in that same 
Supervising Agency which has so often before, in 
graver straits, interfered to protect and carry me 
through, I have resolved to go after Hans.'' 

The Esquimaux lad was proof both against the vio- 
lence and the seduction of the deserter. The com- 
mander found him invalided, but safe, at Etah. Hans, 
however, did not return to Fiskernaes with the expedi- 
tion. His fate is involved in romance. Venus Victrix 
has a representative even in frost-land. The reader must 
go to the pages of Dr. Kane to know what became of 
Hans. 

When the preparations for the final escape were 
under consideration, the following record was made in 
the doctor's journal : " Whatever of executive ability I 
have picked up during this brain-and-body-wearying 
cruise warns me against immature preparation or vacil- 
lating purposes. I must have an exact discipline, a 
rigid routine, and a perfectly thought-ou^ organization. 
For the past six weeks I have, in the intervals between 
my duties to the sick and the ship, arranged the sched- 
ule of our future course ; much of it is already under 
way. My journal shows what I have done, but what 
there is to do is appalling." Appalling as it was, the 
heroic man who had to look the necessity in the face 
was equal to the position. There can be no doubt that 
it was "the exact discipline, the rigid routine, and the 
perfectly thought-out organization,^^ which restored the 
sixteen survivors of the expedition to civilization and 
their homes. 



CHAPTER XX. 

ACTION OF CONGBESS. — RELIEF EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF DR. KANE. — 

HARTSTEIN THE COMMANDER. — ICE ENCOtTNTEBS. — SEARCHES. THE 

LOST FOTOfD. NARRATIVE BY JOHN K. KANE. ICEBERGS. — BIRDS. 

ESQUIMAUX. THE MEETING. — THE RESOLUTE. FOUND BY AMERICAN 

WHALERS. — INTERNATIONAL COURTESIES. DEMAND FOR NEW EXPE- 
DITIONS. — SPECULATIONS. 

The apprehensions caused at home, by the detention 
of Dr. Kane and his party, produced a resolution of 
Congress, approved February 3d, 1855, authorizing the 
Secretary of the Navy to despatch a suitable steamer 
and tender for the relief of the absent voyagers. The 
bark Release and the steamer Arctic were accordingly 
procured and equipped, Lieut. Hartstewa having been 
appointed to the command. He was accompanied by a 
brother of Dr. Kane. They reached Lievely, Isle of Disco, 
Greenland, July 5th, 1855, having encountered the first 
iceberg in latitude 51° 30' north, longitude 51° 40' west. 
With seaman-like generosity, Hartstein, in his letter 
from this place to the Secretary of the Navy, says : '' To 
avoid further risk of human life, in a search so extremely 
hazardous, I would suggest the impropriety of making 
any efforts to relieve us if we should not return ; feeling 
confident that we shall be able to accomplish all neces- 
sary for our own release, under the most extraordinary 
circumstances. '^ 

Entering the closely-packed floe of Melville Bay, the 
39* 



462 THE KANE RELIEF EXPEDITION. 

relief vessels forced a passage into the North Water 
on the morning of the 13th of August. Passing in good 
view of the coast from Cape York to Wolstenholme 
Island, Hartstein, in the steamer, examined Cape Alex- 
ander and Sutherland Island. Passing on to the most 
north-western point in sight (Point Pelham), he noticed 
a few stones heaped together, which, on examination, 
gave assurance of Kane's having been there ; but no 
clue was afforded. Pushing on to latitude T8° 32' north, 
the steamer was opposed by a solid, hummocky field of 
very heavy ice, to which no limit was visible, inter- 
spersed as it was with bergs, all drifting to the south- 
ward. Taking now a retrograde course, they examined 
Cape Hatherton and Littleton Island, and finally took 
refuge under a projecting point, some fifteen miles north- 
west of Cape Alexander. Here they were startled by 
the hail of human voices. Going on shore, they found a 
party of Esquimaux, and among them various articles 
that must have belonged to Dr. Kane and his men. An 
examination of the most intelligent of the natives led to 
the understanding that Dr. Kane, having lost his vessel 
somewhere to the north, had been at that spot, with his 
interpreter (Carl Petersen), and seventeen others, in 
two boats and a sled, and, after remaining ten days, had 
gone south to Upernavik. 

After some more reconnoitring of the coast, Hart- 
stein, in the Arctic, found himself firmly beset by the 
ice, and thought, for a time, he was in winter quarters ; 
but, after twenty-four hours' heavy battering, he got 
out. After having made nearly the whole circuit of the 
northern part of Baffin's Bay, with the exception of a 
deep ice-locked indentation between Capes Cowbermere 
and Isabella, he returned, and, in company with the 
Release, examined Possession Bay and Pond's Bay, 
firing guns, burning blue-lights, and throwing up rock- 



MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 463 

ets. He now determined to proceed to Upernavik, and, 
if he did not there find the missing party, to proceed 
north again, and winter in the ice. This was soon found 
to be unnecessary. At Lievely the missing party were 
received with many welcomes on board the vessels sent 
for their relief. We will leave it to Mr. John K. Kane, 
the brother of the doctor, to narrate, in his animated 
account of the relief expedition, the manner and the inci- 
dents of the encounter. The article, portions of which 
we quote, was originally contributed to Putnam's Mag- 
azine; and conveys, in a novel and spirited style, much 
interesting description and information in regard to the 
latitudes visited. 

At Etah the relief expedition came in contact with 
the Esquimaux who had befriended Dr. Kane ; and Mr. 
J. K. Kane selected one of the most forward and intel- 
ligent of the natives, a boy named Mayouk, and endeav- 
ored by signs to get some information from him. We 
present the following in Mr. Kane's own words : 

'' Mayouk was very quick in understanding us, and 
equally ready in inventing modes of conveying intelli- 
gence. Lead-pencil and paper were called into requisi- 
tion. I took out my note-book, drew a rough sketch 
of a brig, and showed it to him. He, at once, said 
'Dokto Kayen,' and pointed to the north. I then drew 
a reversed sketch, and pointed south. But Mayouk, 
shaking his head, began to sway his body backward 
and forward, to imitate rowing ; then said Dokto 
Kayen again, and pointed south. On this, I drew 
a whole fieet of boats, and invited him to point out 
how many of these he referred to. He took the pencil 
from my hand, and altered the sterns of two into sharp- 
pointed ones, and then held up two fingers, to indicate 
that there were two of such. I now drew carefully two 
whale-boats ; he made signs of approval, as much as to 



464 MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 

say that was the thing ; and, incontinently squatting 
down, imitated the voice and gestures of a dog-driver, 
cracking an imaginary whip, and crying hup-hup-hup, 
at the top of his voice. After which performance, he 
laughed immoderately, and, again pointing south, said 
Dokto Kay en. 

" I was not certain as to his meaning ; but, on my 
drawing a picture of a dog-team, he went through the 
whole performance afresh, and showed the most extrav- 
agant signs of delight at being understood. We found 
out how many dog-sledges and how many men there 
were of the doctor's party, in the same manner. We 
examined several other natives separately, and they all 
told the same story ; nor could we confuse them as to 
the number of men and boats ; they were all clear on 
that head. Nineteen, they made it, neither more nor 
less. We tried our best to make them say that the 
boats had gone north, and the vessel south ; but with- 
out success. Mayouk, on one occasion, being hard 
pressed, stopped his ears, so as, at least, to secure him- 
self from being supposed to assent to what he had not 
learning or language enough to controvert. 

'' At length, a bright thought struck him. He ran 
down to the beach, and got two white stones ; laid 
them on the ground, and, pointing to the floating 
masses of ice in the bay, signified to us that these rep- 
resented the ice. Next, he took a common clay pipe 
of Mr. LovelFs, and, pointing to the north, said, vomiak 
sooak, or big ship, ' vomiak sooak, Dokto Kayen.' He 
next pushed the pipe up between the pebbles, and then 
pressed them together till the pipe was crushed. Lastly, 
he pointed to the south, and began imitating the rowing 
of a boat, the cracking of whips, and the hup-hupping 
of a dog-driver, vociferating, at intervals, ' Dokto Kayen, 
he ! he I he I ' We tried our best to find out how long 



MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 465 

it had been since the Dokto Kayens had left them, for 
it was evident that this was their name for the whole 
party ; but we could not make them understand. They 
would only tell us that their guests had been with them 
for some time. This they did by pointing to the south, 
and then following the track of the sun till it reached 
the north ; then, after stretching themselves out on the 
ground,, and closing their eyes, as if in sleep, would 
again point to the south, rise up, go down to the lake 
and pretend to wash their faces. The gesture lay in 
pretence only, however, for they seemed to regard the 
washing of the Dokto Kayens as a remarkable rehgious 
observance. It certainly was not one which had been 
practically ingrafted into their own formulary of good 
works. These unsophisticated children of the frost-land 
never wash off dirt, for the simple reason that of dirt, 
as such, they have no conception or idea. 

"Improvidence is another trait of these 'fresh chil- 
dren of impulse.^ We were at their village as late as 
the 19th of August. Yet, although the auks were flying 
round them in such quantities that one man could have 
been able to catch a thousand an hour, they had not 
enough prepared for winter to last two days. They 
were all disgustingly fat, and always eating, — perhaps 
an average ration of eighteen pounds per diem, — yet 
they had lost seven by starvation during the last winter, 
though relieved, as far as we could make it out, by the 
Dokto Kayens. 

" They suffer dreadfully from cold, too ; yet there is 
an abundance of excellent peat, which they might dig 
during the summer. They know its value as fuel, and 
are simply too lazy to stack it. The little auk, which 
forms their principal food, may be said also to be their 
only fuel. Indeed, it quite fills the place which the 
seal holds among the more southern Esquimaux. Their 



466 MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 

clothes are lined with its skins, they burn the fat, and, 
setting aside the livers and hearts, to be dried, and con- 
sumed as bonbons during the winter, they eat the meat 
and intestines cooked and raw, both cold and at blood 
heat. 

" They are very hospitable ; the minute we arrived, 
all hands began to catch birds and prepare them for us. 
Tearing off the skins with their teeth, they stripped the 
breasts to be cooked, and presented us with the juicy 
entrails and remaining portions to eat raw, and stay 
our appetites. The viands did not look inviting to us, 
who had witnessed their preparation ; but they appeared 
so hurt at our refusing to eat, that we had to explain 
that it was not cooked but raw birds we wanted. This 
was satisfactory. They set out at once to catch some 
for us ; and in a few moments three of them were on 
their way down to our boat loaded with birds. 

*' Though all the natives had told us that Dr. Kane's 
party had gone southwards after leaving their settle- 
ment, still we were far from certain that they had con- 
tinued their progress in that direction, and Captain 
Hartstein was for some time in doubt as to the course 
which we ought to pursue ; whether we should return 
at once to Upernavik by our old track, or run across 
the bay and examine its western coast, fie finally 
determined on the latter, believing that, if Dr. Kane 
and his party had gone down the eastern coast, they 
would by this time either have been lost in Melville 
Bay, or safely arrived at Upernavik ; while, on the 
contrary, if they had tried to reach the English fleet in 
Lancaster Sound, being ignorant of its desertion, they 
might be there now in a starving condition. 

*^ We reached Cape Alexander without any incident 
worthy of note, and, after searching its barren rocks to 
no purpose, built a cairn, and in it deposited the record 



MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 467 

of our want of success. We next ran down to Suther- 
land Island, took up our now useless flag-staff, and tore 
down the cairn we had placed there on our way up. 
There was a poor little white fox watching us from the 
rocks above, while we were at work, evidently wonder- 
ing what it all meant. He came so close that we could 
have knocked him down with a boat-hook, but we let 
him alone ; we were not short of provisions, and had 
no time to convert him into a specimen. 

" We pushed on through rain and fog to Hakluyt 
Island, where we found our comrades of the Release, 
and spent a few hurried hours in their company. 

"The red snow, that Dr. Kane has described in his 
narrative, was abundant here ; and wherever between 
the ledges of the rock there was a chance for soil, a 
tiny little horseradish sprang up ambitiously through 
the frost, with leaves no bigger than your thumb-nail. 
The miniature plant, flower, root, and all, might have 
filled a very moderate tea-cup. 

" It is hardly worth while to tell of our efforts to find 
Captain Inglefield's Esquimaux settlement in Whale 
Sound. It was the old story of fog and drizzle, ice and 
sleet. We gave it up, and, taking the Release in tow, 
bent our course for Lancaster Sound. 

" But the ice, the everlasting ice ! We were more 
than two hundred miles off when it caught us. It was 
heavier than any we had seen even in Melville Bay. 
For some days it held us like flies in amber, in spite of 
sails, with now and then a puff to fill them, and all the 
steam that Newell could raise in his boiler. It was, 
indeed, a mercy that a gale caught us at last, or we 
might have been there still. We drove before it, the 
ice keeping us company, as if loth to lose us, and, find- 
ing that we could not reach Cape Isabella, made a 
detour to Possession Bay. 



468 MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 

" Pond's Bay, as it is called, seemed to all of us noth- 
ing else but an extension of Admiralty Inlet. We kept 
along" its north coast for thirty-five miles, and could 
see, perhaps, forty miles further, but without finding its 
westernmost shore. A visit to an Esquimaux village, 
some twenty miles up the bay, was the only incident. 
The men, with a single exception, were out on their 
hunting-parties ; but the women were there, as commu- 
nicative in their unknown dialect as any we had met of 
the grosser sex. They were certainly no beauties, and 
their costume was a little extravagant even for the 
Esquimaux fashions, as we had seen them. They had 
their faces tattooed with lampblack, in a set of dotted 
lines, radiating from the corners of the mouth ; and their 
very long wide boots were hitched, awkwardly enough, 
by a loop to the waistband of their seal-skin trousers. 

" They appeared to be of a superior race to the 
Greenland natives. They were larger and stronger, 
their kayaks were better built, and they had much more 
roomy tents. 

'' The whole of Pond's Bay showed one dreary, in- 
hospitable coast-line. We were all of us glad when 
our commander gave the order to make for the eastern 
coast of Baffin's Bay. 

''We had an eight-knot breeze, and were not more 
than two hundred miles from Upernavik. There was 
every chance of the wind continuing, so that we confi- 
dently expected to reach that port in the course of the 
week. We thought we were to the southward of the 
pack ; and the heavy sea, which made us all sea-sick 
after our long exemption from rough water, strengthened 
this conviction. But we were mistaken. The very 
next day it was before us, an impenetrable barrier. 
There was no help for it ; we had to run further to the 
south — how much farther it was hardly worth while to 



MR. J. K. KANE-S N.VRRATIVE. 469 

guess. It was no very difficult matter, you would 
think, to run along the edge of the ice till we came to 
the end of it, and then run across. But this ice had all 
the irregularities of a coast : large inlets and bays run- 
ning into it, and capes projecting just where you do not 
expect to meet them ; and, over and over again, after 
running for a whole day, just as we were sure we had 
reached its southern boundary, we would find ourselves 
in a cul-de-sac, with the ice on both sides of us. At 
last we came to a dead halt. We were fairly in the 
pack — it was before us, behind us, and on both sides 
of us. 

" Day after day passed, and we found we were drift- 
ing to the south, fairly glued in. There are only two 
incidents that I speak of in or about this pleasant little 
travel. One was just as it began. It was a meeting 
with an ancient whaler, the Eclipse, of Peterhead, with 
a jolly old Captain Gray, who insisted on all hands 
making a trial of a regular Scotchman's hospitality, and 
tossed half a dozen hams -after us into the boat, when 
we refused to take the half of his cabin stores. The 
other was the gale that ended it. It was less pleasant 
at the time ; but, like some other things that I have 
met with in this world, its effects were better than its 
promise. What a night it was ! The bark ran into an 
iceberg, and came very near being lost. She fired 
thirteen guns for assistance, but the crashing and grind- 
ing was so tremendous that, though we were not three 
quarters of a mile off", and the wind was blowing directly 
towards us, we did not hear one of them. I never shall 
forget the melancholy figure she presented on joining 
us next morning. We felt quite a glow of sympathy 
for the poor Release, till Captain Hartstein's hailing our 
steamer with the information that our cutwater looked 
40 



470 MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 

like a prize-fighter's nose. We then remembered that 
we, too, had a night of it. 

" After this gale we had little or no more trouble 
with the ice ; one or two trifling detentions of a few 
days brought us to the open water. We had drifted so 
far to the south that Lievely was nearer than Upernavik, 
and Captain Hartstein determined to put in there. We 
had a heavy gale the night after we left the ice ; but so 
glad were we all to get clear of it, that I heard no com- 
plaints about rough weather. It cleared away beauti- 
fully towards morning, and we were all on the deck, 
admiring the clear water, and the fantastic shapes of 
the water-washed icebergs. All hands were in high 
spirits ; the gale had blown in the right direction, and 
in a few hours we should be in Lievely. The rocks of 
its land-locked harbor were already in sight. We were 
discussing our news by anticipation, when the man in 
the crow's nest cried out, ' A brig in the harbor ! ' and 
the next minute, before we had time to congratulate 
each other on the chance of sending letters home, that 
she had hoisted American colors — a delicate compli- 
ment, we thought, on the part of our friends, the 
Banes. 

" I believe our captain was about to return it, when, 
to our surprise, she hoisted another flag, the veritable 
one which had gone out with the Advance, bearing the 
name of Mr. Henry Grinnell. At the same moment, 
two boats were seen rounding the point, and pulling 
towards us. Did they contain our lost friends ? Yes ; 
the sailors had settled that. ' Those are Yankees, sir ; 
no Danes ever feathered their oars that way,' said an 
old whaler to me. 

" For those who had friends among the missing party, 
the few minutes that followed were of bitter anxiety ; 
for the men in the boats were long-bearded and weather- 



MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 471 

beaten ; they had strange, wild costumes ; there was 
no iDOssibility of recognition. Dr. Kane, standing up- 
right in the stern of the first float, with his spy-glass 
slung round his neck, was the first identified ; then the 
big form of Mr. Brooks ; in another moment all hands 
of tliem were on board of us. 

"It was curious to watch the effects of the excite- 
ment in different people, — the intense quietude of some, 
the boisterous delight of others ; how one man would 
become intensely loquacious, another would do nothing 
but laugh, and a third would creep away to some out- 
of-the-way corner, as if he were afraid of showing how 
he felt. How hungry they all were for news, and how 
eagerly they tore open the home letters ; most of them, 
poor fellows, had pleasant tidings, and all were pre- 
pared to make the best of bad ones. We were in the 
harbor, with a fleet of kayaks dancing in welcome 
around and behind us, before the greetings were half 
ended, for they repeated themselves over and over 
again. 

" Our old friend, Mr. Olrik, was with the new comers, 
and as happy as the rest. His hospitality, when we 
reached the shore, was absolutely boundless ; and his 
house and table were always at our service. Altogether, 
I never passed three more delightful days than those 
last days at Lievely. Balls every night ; feasts and 
junketings every day ; and, pleasantest of all, those 
dear home-like tea-tables, with shining tea-urn and clear, 
white sugar, round which we sat, waiting for the water 
to boil, and talking of Russia and the Czar, and the 
world outside the Circle ; while Mrs. Olrik would look 
up from her worsted-work, and the children pressed 
round me to see the horses and dogs I was drawing for 
them. It was enough to make one forget his red flannel 
shirt and rough Arctic rig ; Melville Bay and the pack 



472 MR. J. K. KANE'S NARRATIVE. 

seemed fables. The Danish doctor, too, arrived from 
Fiskernaes, a very intelligent gentleman, and we talked 
away bravely to him in bad Latin. He brought us a 
present of reindeer-meat, — a new dish for some of us, 
tasting like a cross between Virginia mountain mutton 
and our Pennsylvania red deer. 

But our stay in Lievely ended. The propeller got 
up steam, and, taking our bark and the Danish brig 
Marianne in tow, steamed out of the harbor. All the 
inhabitants of the town were on the shore to see the 
last of us. Our visit had been as memorable an incident 
to them as to ourselves. Where ten dollars is a large 
marriage dower. Jack's liberality of expenditure seemed 
absolutely royal. There were moistened eyes among 
them, for they are essentially kind-hearted ; and even 
the roar of our cannon, in answer to the Danish salute, 
though it resounded splendidly among the hills, was 
scarcely heeded, as they stood, with folded arms, watch- 
ing us disappear in the distance. We carried Mr. Olrik 
quite out to sea before we bade him good-by ; and it 
was not until the next morning that the Marianne cast 
loose. 

^'We reached home without any incident worthy 
of note, except that the Esquimaux dogs we had on 
board did nothing but howl during the whole voyage, 
— an amiable peculiarity, which still characterizes the 
single specimen of which I am at present the happy 
possessor. There he goes — I hear him now.'^ 



The return of Hartstein with the survivors of Kane's 
expedition closes the record of the search for Sir John 
Franklin. 

Never was there such a disastrous state of things in 
the Arctic regions : six ships left in the ice ! The 
Investigator at Mercy Bay, the Resolute and Intrepid 



FINDING OF THE RESOLUTE. 473 

at Melville Island, the Assistance and Pioneer in Wel- 
lington Channel, and the Advance in Smith's Sound, to 
be added to the Erebus and Terror, which we have 
reason to believe had been left years before somewhere 
in the strait of James Eoss. The Arctic archipelago 
was studded with abandoned ships ! 

None could have imagined that any of these gallant 
ships would ever carry sail again ; or that we might not 
truly say of each of them, in the words of Dr. Kane, 
" The ice is round her still." 

But of one of these vessels there is a further story to 
tell ; and, as it recounts a kindly interchange of courte- 
sies between the two nations which vied with each other 
in heroic, though fruitless efforts, to rescue the missing 
navigators, it will form a pleasant finale to our narra- 
tive. 

In the month of September, 1855, the whaler George 
Henry, Captain Buddington, of New London, Connecti- 
cut, was drifting along, beset by the ice, in Baffin's Bay, 
when one morning the captain, looking through his 
glass, saw a large ship some fifteen or twenty miles dis- 
tant, apparently working her way towards him. Day 
after day, while helplessly imprisoned in the pack, he 
watched her coming nearer and nearer. On the seventh 
day, the mate, Mr. Quail, and three men, were sent to 
find out what she was. 

After a hard day's journey over the ice, — jumping 
from piece to piece, and pushing themselves along on 
isolated cakes, — they were near enough to see that she 
was lying on her larboard side, firmly imbedded in the 
ice. They shouted lustily, as soon as they got within 
hailing distance ; but there was no answer. Not a soul 
was to be seen. For one moment, as they came along- 
side, the men faltered, with a superstitious feeling, and 
hesitated to go on board. A moment after, they had 
40* 



474 FINDING OF THE RESOLUTE. 

climbed over the broken ice, and stood on deck. Every- 
thing was stowed away in order — spars hauled up and 
lashed to one side, boats piled together, hatches calked 
down. Over the helm, in letters of brass, was inscribed 
the motto '' England expects every man to do his duty." 
But there was no man to heed the warning. 

The whalemen broke open the companion-way, and 
descended into the cabin. All was silence and darkness. 
Groping their way to the table, they found matches and 
candles, and struck a light. There were decanters and 
glasses on the table, chairs and lounges standing around, 
books scattered about — everything just as it had been 
last used. Looking curiously from one thing to another, 
wondering what this deserted ship might be, at last they 
came upon the log-book. It was endorsed, ''Bark Res- 
olute, 1st September, 1853, to x\pril, 1854." One entry 
was as follows : " H. M. S. Resolute, ITth January, 
1854, nine a. m. — Mustered by divisions. People tak- 
ing exercise on deck. Five p. m. — Mercury frozen." 

This told the story. It was Captain Kellett's ship, 
the Resolute, which had broken away from her icy 
prison, and had thus fallen into the hands of our Yan- 
kee whalemen. 

While the men were making these discoveries, night 
came on, and a gale arose. So hard did it blow that they 
were compelled to remain on board, and for two days 
these four were the whole crew of the Resolute. It 
was not till 19th September that they returned to 
their own ship, and made their report. 

All these ten days, since Captain Buddington had 
first seen her, the vessels had been nearing each other. 
On the 19th he boarded her himself, and found that in 
her hold, on the larboard side, was a good deal of ice. 
Her tanks had burst, from the extreme cold ; and she 
was full of water, nearly to her lower deck. Everything 



FINDING OF THE RESOLUTE. 475 

that could move from its place had moved. Everything 
between decks was wet ; . everything that would mould 
was mouldy. ''A sort of perspiration '' had settled on 
the beams and ceilings. The whalemen made a fire in 
Kellett's stove, and soon started a sort of shower from 
the vapor with which it filled the air. The Resolute 
had, however, four fine force-pumps. For three days 
the captain and six men worked fourteen hours a day 
on one of these, and had the pleasure of finding that 
they freed her of water, — that she was tight still. 
They cut away upon the masses of ice ; and on the 23d 
of September, in the evening, she freed herself from her 
encumbrances, and took an even keel. This was off the 
west shore of BaflSn's Bay, in latitude 61°. On the short- 
est tack, she was twelve hundred miles from where Kel- 
lett left her. 

There was work enough still to be done. The rudder 
was to be shipped, the rigging to be made taut, sail 
to be set ; — and it proved, by the way, that the sail on 
the yards was much of it still serviceable, while a suit of 
new linen sails below were greatly injured by moisture. 
In a week more, she was ready to make sail. The pack 
of ice still drifted with both ships ; but, on the 21st Octo- 
ber, after a long north-west gale, the Resolute was firee. 

Capt. Buddington had resolved to bring her home. 
He had picked ten men from the George Henry, and 
with a rough tracing of the American coast, drawn on a 
sheet of foolscap, with his lever watch and a quadrant 
for his instruments, he squared off for New London. 
A rough, hard passage they had of it. The ship's bal- 
last was gone, by the bursting of the tanks ; she was 
top-heavy and undermanned. He spoke a British whal- 
ing-bark, and by her sent to Captain Kellett his 
epaulets, and to his own owners news that he was 
coming. They had heavy gales and head winds, and 



476 RETURN OF THE RESOLUTE. 

were driven as far down as the Bermudas. The water 
left in the ship's tanks was brackish, and it needed all 
the seasoning which the ship's chocolate would- give to 
make it drinkable. ''For sixty hours at a time," says 
the captain, " I frequently had no sleep ; " but his per- 
severance was crowned with success, at last, and, on 
the night of the 23d of December, he made the light off 
the harbor from which he sailed, and on Sunday morn- 
ing, the 24th, dropped anchor in the Thames, opposite 
New London, and ran up the British ensign on the shorn 
masts of the Resolute. 

Her subsequent history is fresh in the minds of our 
readers. The British government generously released 
all their claim in favor of the sailors. Thereupon, Con- 
gress resolved that the vessel should be purchased and 
restored as a present to her majesty from the American 
people. This design was fally carried out. The Reso- 
lute was taken to the dry-dock in Brooklyn, and there 
put in complete order. Everything on board — even the 
smallest article — was replaced as nearly as possible in 
its original position ; and, at length, having been manned 
and officered from the United States navy, and placed 
under the command of Captain Hartstein, the Resolute, 
stanch and sound again, from stem to stern, " with 
sails all set and streamers all afloat," once more shaped 
her course for England. 

On the 12th of December, 1856, after a boisterous 
passage, she anchored at Spithead, with the United 
States and British ensigns flying at the peak. " Not- 
withstanding the furious gale which was then raging," 
says Captain Hartstein, in his official report, ''we were 
immediately boarded by Captain Peal, of her Britannic 
Majesty's frigate Shannon, who cordially offered to us 
every civility and attention. In a few moments after- 
wards, a steamer arrived from Vice-Admiral Sir George 



RETURN OF THE RESOLUTE. 477 

Seymour (commanding officer of the station), with a 
tender of services, and congratulations upon our safe 
arrival. Proceeding to Portsmouth next morning (which 
I did in a government steamer provided me for that 
purpose), I visited the. United States Consulate, and 
was there waited upon by Sir Thomas Maitland, who 
had become commanding officer of the naval station in 
the absence of the admiral, Sir George Seymour, and 
received from him a most cordial welcome, with proffers 
of every possible service, by express instruction from 
the Admiralty. Accommodations were prepared for us 
at the first hotel, and orders for a bountiful supply of 
provisions to be sent on board the Kesolute ; also a 
carte blanche for the railroad to London for myself and 
the officers of the Resolute. In fact, nothing could 
exceed the kindness and courtesy with which we were 
treated by Captain Sir Thomas Maitland, who seemed 
unwilling that any means of adding to his hearty expres- 
sions of welcome should pass unexhausted. That morn- 
ing's post brought me a communication from Sir Charles 
Wood, first lord of the Admiralty (which I herewith 
enclose), whose expressions of kindly feeling I beg may 
be particularly noticed. At noon of the day after our 
arrival, a royal salute was fired from the Victory (flag- 
ship), from the fortifications, and from the Shannon, at 
Spithead." 

The Queen having expressed a wish to visit the Reso- 
lute, and a desire that the vessel might be taken to 
Cowes, near her majesty's private palace, the ship was 
towed thither by the government steamer, escorted by 
two other steamers, and the steam-frigate Retribution. 

Meanwhile, the necessary diplomatic formalities had 
been exchanged between the American minister and 
Lord Clarendon. 

Of the Queen's visit to the Resolute, which took 



478 RETURN OF THE RESOLUTE. 

place on the 16th of December, we quote the following 
description from the London Times : 

''The Queen, accompanied by Prince Albert, the 
Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and the Princess 
Alice, left Osborne at a quarjter past ten o'clock, and 
drove to the ship in an open carriage, drawn by four 
gray ponies. Her majesty was attended by a distin- 
guished suite. The Resolute, dressed in her colors, 
was lashed alougside of the royal embarkation place at 
Trinity Wharf. The English and American flags were 
flying at the peak ; and, as soon as the Queen set her 
foot on the deck, the royal standard was hoisted at the 
main. The Retribution fired a salute, the boats' crews 
' tossed ' their oars, and the ship's company, standing 
on the rail, received her majesty with three rounds of 
cheers. Captain Hartstein received the royal party at 
the gangway, and the officers, in full uniform, were 
grouped on either side. All were presented to the 
Queen by Captain Hartstein, who then addressed her 
majesty in the following words : 

'' ' Allow me to welcome your majesty on board the 
Resolute, and, in obedience to the will of my country- 
men and the President of the United States, to restore 
her to you, not only as an evidence of a friendly feeling 
to your sovereignty, but as a token of love, admiration, 
and respect, to your majesty personally.' 

" The Queen seemed touched by the manly simplicity 
of this frank and sailor-like address, and replied, with a 
gracious smile, 'I thank you, sir.' The royal family 
then went over the ship, and examined her with manifest 
interest." 

After the withdrawal of the royal party, there was an 
elegant dejeuner in the ward-room, at which, among 
other toasts, was given, " The future success of the 
Resolute, and may she be again employed in prosecuting 



RETURN OF THE RESOLUTE. 479 

the search for Sir John Franklin and his comrades." 
This sentiment evoked cordial applause. 

On the afternoon of the same day, "I received," says 
Captain Hartstein, "a note, enclosing a check for one 
hundred pounds, with a request from her majesty that 
it should be distributed among the crew ; which I ac- 
cepted in their behalf. 

''On the morning of December ITth, the Eesolute 
was towed up to the harbor of Portsmouth, escorted by 
the steam-frigate Eetribution ; and, on arriving at her 
anchorage, was received by another royal salute, and 
with such an outburst of popular feeling as was never 
known before." 

The British government and people were unremitting 
in their attentions to Captain Hartstein and his officers, 
during their stay in England. Three splendid Christ- 
mas cakes were forwarded by Lady Franklin to Ports- 
mouth, to be presented to the American officers and 
crew. A passage to the United States, in the British 
steamer Retribution, was tendered them. This, how- 
ever, it was thought best to decline. On the 30th of 
December, 1856, the American flag was hauled down 
on board the Resolute, when it was saluted by the 
Victory with twenty-one guns. The union-jack was 
then hoisted, and the ship was given up to the author- 
ities. The next day the American officers and crew left 
England, on their return to the United States. 

By late English papers, we learn that the Queen has 
commissioned Mr. William Simpson, the artist of the 
Crimean war, to paint for her private gallery a picture 
of the "Reception" on board the Resolute — a very 
graceful memorial of a most interesting act of interna- 
tional courtesy. 

While we write, the expediency of sending out still 
other expeditions is discussed in England. " There is 



480 



ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS. 



now little or no doubt/ ^ says the United Service Jour- 
nal, " as to the intention of the government to despatch 
final expeditions in search of further traces of Sir John 
Franklin. They will probably consist of three parties : 
one overland, another by the way of Behring's Strait, 
and a third by the way of Davis's Strait and Baffin's 
Bay." 

Here terminates our history of Arctic adventure and 
exploration. The results hitherto obtained are alto- 
gether different from those of a pecuniary nature. 
Through their means, the astronomer, the geographer, 
the physicist, the naturalist, the chemist, and science 
at large, have acquired facts which could have been 
gained in no other way. The cost has been great ; the 
cost of the expeditions alone in search of Franklin is 
estimated at upwards of four millions of dollars : but 
the consequences will be permanent ; and the record 
of enterprising hardihood, physical endurance, and 
steady perseverance, displayed in overcoming elements 
the most adverse, will long remain among the worthiest 
memorials of human effort. 




POETRY AND THE DRAMA 



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